Your first year in Oil Director is about one thing: growing production faster than your old wells decline. Standing still is the one strategy that always loses. Drill on the lease you start with, look for a discovery of your own, and sign a contract you can keep. That is the road to Independent.
What you start with
Every company starts with $3 million, a reputation of 30 and a tired lease: two old wells, four well slots and about 70% of its oil left. You also have a small truck fleet that moves 500 barrels a day, 4,000 barrels of tank space, two rigs, a full staff, and a licensing round of three blocks to look at.
Time runs in real time while you play. A day passes every 16 seconds at normal speed, and you can pause or play at 2× and 4×. Each month ends with a report, and the game waits for you before the next month starts.
Choose your home
Your first decision is where to found the company. It also sets the difficulty.
| Home | Difficulty | Crude | Royalty and tax | What it's like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | Easy | Light sweet, full price | 12.5% royalty, 21% tax | Fat margins, short-lived onshore and shale wells |
| Alberta | Medium | Heavy sour, 80% of the price | 10% royalty, 23% tax | Big, slow oil-sands fields on thin margins |
| Oman | Medium | Medium sour, 93% of the price | 12% royalty, 38% tax, the state takes 20% | Cheap to operate, expensive to license |
Start in Texas. Each barrel nets about $50 at the opening price of $68, so you can afford mistakes. Alberta pumps more barrels from day one, but each one nets only about $25 after the heavy-crude discount, trucking and lifting costs, and in a price crash it can lose money.
Your first moves
- Drill a third well on the lease. The first tip suggests it, and it's right. In Texas a development well costs about $1.35 million and pays for itself in the first one to two years. A fourth well right away gains less: wells on the same lease share the same oil, so more wells pump it faster rather than finding more.
- Look at the licensing round. Each block shows a reserve estimate and the odds of oil. Signing costs a one-off bonus. You then have 360 days to start an exploration well, or the licence lapses and you lose reputation.
- Survey before you drill. A 2D seismic survey costs about $54,000 in Texas; an exploration well about $1.44 million. Seismic narrows the reserve estimate and sharpens the oil-or-not call. Our guide to finding oil goes deeper.
- In Alberta, buy trucks first. Your starting wells nearly fill the trucks. Add one oil-sands well and the barrels have nowhere to go, so add a truck level (about $200,000) alongside the well.
Sign a contract you can keep
Contracts are how you build reputation, and reputation unlocks almost everything else. A buyer takes a set number of barrels a day, and every month grades how much you delivered:
- A (98% or more) raises the price on a floating contract.
- B (90% or more) is fine.
- C or D costs you $3 to $8 for every barrel you came up short. Two poor months in a row and the buyer walks away.
Don't sign before you have the barrels. Coastal Refining's smallest contract is 150 barrels a day, and a Texas company starts at about 137. Drill your third well first, then sign.
Reaching Independent
To become an Independent you need all of these at once:
- reputation 42
- 1,200 barrels a day of your own production
- 4 million barrels of reserves
- 1 contract
The reputation is the hard part. Without contracts it settles in the low 30s. Delivering what you promise, month after month, is worth up to 32 points on its own. A careful Texas or Oman company can make Independent in about six months.
Independent opens your first countries abroad, a bigger bank loan, a third rig and the export terminal.
Common mistakes
- Doing nothing. Onshore wells lose about 28% of their output a year, while wages and overheads keep running. In our five-year balance tests, a company that never drilled ended up overdrawn.
- Over-promising. A contract you can't fill costs cash and reputation.
- Choosing Store when the tanks are full. Store holds barrels in your tanks for a better price, but once they're full the wells are choked and the oil stays in the ground.
- Forgetting licence deadlines. A lapsed licence costs reputation and relations with that country.
- Taking a term loan you can't cover. Instalments are taken at month end even if the cash isn't there, and an overdraft costs 25% a year.
Once the oil is flowing, read how to make money in Oil Director.