ZYPHER XP | FACTORY FIXES
Your petroleum gas line is empty, crude oil is arriving, and the refinery is doing absolutely nothing. In Factorio, the problem can be the oil you aren't trying to make. Advanced oil processing produces heavy oil, light oil and petroleum gas together. If one output has nowhere to go, the refinery cannot keep supplying the other two.
Before adding another row of refineries, inspect the outputs of one stopped machine. This guide covers ordinary crude-oil processing in the unmodded PC base game. Expansion-specific production chains and overhaul mods need their own recipe checks.
Featured image: oil processing, storage and rail connections in Wube's official press kit. All gameplay images here are archival PC captures, with the exact build unspecified. They illustrate the machinery, not a current layout blueprint or recommended production ratio. © Wube Software.
First, check which recipe is actually running
Basic oil processing turns crude oil into petroleum gas. Advanced oil processing adds water as an input and produces all three oil fractions. That change introduces two more products to handle. A pipe layout that worked for the basic recipe needs another look when you switch it.
Open the refinery and inspect its selected recipe. Check that its required inputs are arriving and that it has electricity. Then use alt-mode to identify the fluid connections. Follow the displayed icons rather than assuming a pipe on a familiar side still carries the fluid you remember.
If the refinery is missing water, fix the supply before adjusting cracking. If it has the inputs but a product is backed up, investigate that product's route. Keep those two diagnoses separate so you do not rebuild a working crude-oil delivery line.
An empty petroleum line does not prove the outputs are clear
The refinery documentation identifies the trap directly: a full product output stops production of the others. Inspect heavy oil and light oil even when petroleum gas is the resource you need.
For each product, trace the connection from the refinery to its storage or consumer. Check whether the route is connected, whether there is room for more fluid, and whether the next machine is actually using it. A full heavy-oil system can leave the petroleum side waiting despite a perfectly healthy crude supply.
Wube discussed this exact multiple-output stumbling block in Friday Facts #305. The useful lesson survives the old interface: the refinery needs an outlet for every product, not just the one your next project wants.
Storage buys time; consumption keeps the route open
Extra tank space can temporarily accept oil that has backed up. It does not create continuing demand. If production keeps exceeding consumption, the new space eventually fills and the original problem returns.
Use the temporary breathing room to find the lasting outlet. That may mean restoring a stalled consumer or processing an excess product further. Resist making a giant tank farm the first answer to every shortage. It is an impressive way to postpone the same inspection.
Cracking moves excess oil toward petroleum gas
Once advanced oil processing is available, chemical plants can crack heavy oil with water into light oil, then crack light oil with water into petroleum gas. These are separate recipes in separate processing steps. Wube's base-game recipe data specifies the inputs and outputs.
If heavy oil is backed up, inspect the heavy-oil cracking plant's recipe, power, water supply and light-oil outlet. A plant cannot help if its own result has nowhere to go. If light oil is the blockage, work through the light-oil cracking step and its petroleum outlet instead.
Cracking is useful when you have excess heavier oil and somewhere to use the lighter result. It cannot solve an already-full petroleum system by producing still more petroleum. Follow the chain to the point where the output can actually be consumed.
Keep heavy oil available for lubricant
Heavy oil has another job: chemical plants turn it into lubricant. The base game uses lubricant for express belts and their underground and splitter counterparts, plus electric engine units. Cracking away the whole supply can trade one shortage for another.
Before expanding cracking, check whether your lubricant production still receives what it needs. Decide which production line you are trying to support, then observe the heavy-oil and lubricant reserves while it runs. There is no universal reserve target that knows what you plan to build next.
Confirm the fix before expanding
Change one part of the chain, then watch the stopped refinery resume and follow the fluid into its next consumer. Keep watching long enough to see whether the same output starts filling again. A short burst into an empty tank confirms available space, not a lasting balance.
If every output can leave but supply still falls behind demand, capacity becomes the next question. Until then, adding refineries gives you more machines waiting on the same full pipe.
Mechanics and links checked November 11, 2026. Gameplay images and the historical interface illustration are © Wube Software, used for editorial coverage under the official press-kit permission. Visit the Factorio website for the game.
