1. Month: The current month you are in.
You start the game on the current month according to your computer
clock. The number in parenthesis next to the month is the turn
number you are currently on. The game lasts for 120
turns.
2. Cash: This is the amount of cash you
currently have available to you for purchases.
3. Refine Product Cost: This is the cost per
gallon to refine each of the five products - lubricants, gasoline,
fuel oil, oil products, and kerosene. See the Product Chart
below for more information about the products.
4. Market Price: This is the current price you
can sell the specified product. Before refining, you should
make sure the market price is above the refine cost and that it
yields a good profit margin. Be aware, though, that the price
can change dramatically by the next turn. See the Product
Chart below for more information about the products.
5. Crude in Stock: The amount of crude you have in stock,
either from importing or from your land plots.
6. Refineries: The number of refineries you
own. Each refinery can refine up to 25,000,000 gallons of
crude each turn.
7. Refinable Gallons: The amount of crude you can
refine in this turn. This is equal to the number of refineries
times 25,000,000 minus any crude you have already set up to refine
this turn.
8. Storage Available: The amount of storage you
have available for additional crude. This is equal to the
number of storage units times 15,000,000 minus any crude or products
you already own.
9. Products to Refine: The number of gallons you
have already started to refine for all products this turn.
10. Product to Refine: The number of gallons
for each product you have already started to refine this turn.
See the Product Chart below for more information about the
products.
11. Refine Product button: Click these buttons to
refine crude oil into the specified product. See Refining for
more information.
12. Close button: Closes the current screen and
returns you to the main menu.
13. Toggle Main Menu button: Opens the main menu
without closing the current screen. If the main menu is
already shown, clicking this button will hide the main menu.
14. Refine Products Graph: Displays the trend in
refining costs over the past 12 months. The light green line
indicates the refining cost of lubricants, the blue line for
gasoline, the white line for fuel oil, the tan line for oil
products, and the light red line for kerosene. To highlight a
particular line, click on legend display on the right for the line
you wish to highlight. To hide a line, right-click the legend
display for the line you wish to hide.
Before refining, make sure you have some crude oil. To
begin, choose a product you would like to refine your crude into,
such as lubricants or gasoline. Try to get the highest profit
margin by looking at the refining cost and comparing them to the
market price. Be careful, though, since these prices can
fluctuate rapidly between turns. You could spend $3.000 per
gallon of lubricants with a market value of $4.500, thinking you'll
make $1.500 per gallon, so you refine 25,000,000 gallons. By
the next turn, the market price suddenly dips to around $0.400, and
you have 25,000,000 gallons of worthless lubricants in your
inventory!
Once you have decided on a product, click
the product's Refine button. The graph is replaced by a place
where you can specify the number of gallons you want to refine for
that product (shown below). Type it in and click OK. The
amount of crude you specified will temporarily be taken out of your
inventory while it's being refined. After you advance the
turn, your refined products are put in your inventory, and you can
choose to sell them at any time.