Fuel
The Last Caretaker Oil Rig Setup: Automatic Diesel at Black Vein Station, Step by Step
Short answer: At Black Vein Station, power comes first: Solar Panels on the helipad and batteries beside them. Repair the oil pump on the lowest deck and run a cable and an oil pipe down to it, pipe the oil up to the tanks on the top deck and into a Distillation Tower (level 20), and send diesel and petrol to their own tanks by the lift. Run one pipe down the lift to the dock and you can fill your boat with diesel whenever you come by. The tower stops when either side is full, so give petrol enough room or unplug it.
Game version: Early Access, Update 6 (October 19, 2026); the build was checked in videos from January and April 2026
Build Order
- Reach level 20 for the Distillation Tower and clear the station.
- Put Solar Panels on the helipad and batteries beside them.
- Repair the oil pump on the lowest deck and run a cable and an oil pipe down to it.
- Pipe the oil to the tanks on the top deck and connect them to a Distillation Tower with power.
- Pipe diesel and petrol into their own rows of tanks by the lift.
- Run a pipe down the lift to the dock and fill your boat from it.
Before You Build
What do you need before setting up the oil rig?
Reach skill level 20 first, because that unlocks the Distillation Tower. Clear the station’s enemies before you start building, and bring the parts to repair the oil pump: it does not run until you fix it.
How do you power the oil rig?
Power comes first, so you have electricity while you build the rest. Put Solar Panels on the helipad at the top of the lift and a bank of batteries beside it, so the pump and the tower keep going at night.
Eight Solar Panels and six batteries, with the batteries set to Equalize so they fill evenly, are enough to get going; more of both is better. In another build the pump and the tower each drew about 60 kW, which emptied the batteries at night.
See also: power grid guide · power calculator
Pump, Tower and Tanks
Where is the oil pump and how do you connect it?
The oil pump is on the lowest deck, at the bottom of the big staircase. Repair it, then run a power cable and an oil pipe down to it along the same route: along the edge of the platform, down the stairs and along the ceiling to the pump.
How do you set up the Distillation Tower on the rig?
Bring the oil pipe up to the oil tanks on the top deck and connect the tanks to a Distillation Tower. Give the tower power and switch it on: diesel and petrol come out of two outputs, and plastic drops on the floor beside it, so pick it up now and then.
The old oil tanks on the top deck are broken too; repair them like the pump.
See also: Distillation Tower
How do you store the diesel and petrol?
Build diesel tanks and petrol tanks next to the lift and pipe each output of the tower to its own row. Add a row of oil tanks as well if you want to carry crude oil away too.
A diesel pipe only connects to a diesel tank and a petrol pipe only to a petrol tank, so a wrong connection simply does not take.
Getting Fuel onto Your Boat
How do you get the diesel down to your boat?
Run one more pipe from the tanks down the lift to the dock where your boat ties up, fixing connectors to the lift as it goes down. At the bottom, plug the diesel line (or the oil or petrol line) into your boat and fill up. The dock already has two diesel and two petrol tanks of its own.
Why does the rig stop making diesel?
The tower makes far more diesel than petrol and stops as soon as either side is full. Give the petrol side enough tanks, or unplug the petrol line from the tower so it spills on the floor and the diesel keeps flowing.
The pump keeps running even when every tank is full, so close the oil line, or switch the pump off, when you leave.
Do you have to refine the oil on the rig?
You do not have to refine on the rig. You can fill oil tanks on your boat at the pump and put the Distillation Tower on the boat or at your base instead.
See also: every way to get oil
