How To Farm Oil in Fallout 4

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Oil is a rare material in Fallout 4, but you can find it in a few locations, buy it from NPCs, and even make it yourself.

The cheapest and easiest way to farm oil is to collect junk items that contain it, wait until those items respawn, and collect them again.

And the absolute best places to find a large amount of items that contain oil are the following spots:

Location Junk Items Amount of Oil
Dunwich Borers Gas canisters, lanterns 25
Super Duper Mart (Lexington) Mr. Handy Fuel 8
Hardware Town Paint cans 14
 

Farming Oil From Junk Items

 
Collecting junk items that contain oil, in Hardware Town / Fallout 4
Collecting junk items that contain oil, in Hardware Town
 

It’s easy to find a lot of oil in the Wasteland if you know what to look for.

These are the items that can be scrapped into oil:

Item Yield
Industrial size shortening 5
Oil can 4
Cooking oil 3
Cutting fluid 3
Aluminum oil can 2
Blue paint 2
Lantern 2
Mr. Handy fuel 2
Oil canister 2
Paint can 2
Yellow paint 2
Aluminum canister 1
Blowtorch 1
Flip lighter 1
Gas canister 1
Gold plated flip lighter 1
Soap 1
Used oil can 1

You will find a lot of these items randomly placed around, in the Commonwealth, and also as loot from enemies.

But if you just want to focus on the best locations mentioned previously, then here’s their location on the map:

 
 / Fallout 4
The location of the top places to farm oil from / Source
 

Tip: When farming any junk items, keep in mind that most items in Fallout 4 take around 7 days to respawn.

There’s a trick to knowing if the items you find contain the materials you are looking for:

  1. Open the workshop from one of your settlements
  2. Try to craft something that requires a material you don’t have
  3. You will see a “TAG FOR SEARCH” option
  4. Activate it

With TAG FOR SEARCH activated on the materials you need, the junk items that contain those materials will display a small magnifying glass when you hover them.

 
How to tag items for search / Fallout 4
How to tag items for search
 

Once you have the items you were looking for, you need to transform them into oil. To do this:

  1. Store your junk items inside one of your workshops
  2. Craft something that requires oil
  3. The workshop will automatically convert that item into its raw materials
 
How to store junk in your workshop / Fallout 4
How to store junk in your workshop
 

Buying Oil From NPCs

 
Buying shipments of oil from KL-E-O in Goodneighbor / Fallout 4
Buying shipments of oil from KL-E-O in Goodneighbor
 

The greatest advantage of buying oil from an NPC is that you don’t need to carry any extra weight. Shipments of Oil are weightless and can be converted into 25 oil in a workshop.

Buying from an NPC is also fast and easy, but very expensive. If you are still starting out and don’t have a great amount of bottle caps, this might not be an option for you.

You can alternatively buy junk items that contain oil, and scrap them in your workshop.

This is a list of all the NPCs that sell Shipments of Oil, and where to find them:

NPC Location Shipment’s Amount
KL-E-O Goodneighbor 25
Trashcan Carla Roaming From Sanctuary Hills to Drumlin Diner 25
Proctor Teagan The Prydwen* 25
Isabel Cruz The Mechanist’s Lair 25

*If you don’t have access to The Prydwen yet, continue following the main story quest to unlock it.

Here’s their locations on the map of the Commonwealth:

 
 / Fallout 4
The location of all NPCs that sell shipments of oil. Source
 

Alternative: Making Your Own Oil

 
Crafting Cutting Fluid from the Chemistry Station / Fallout 4
Crafting Cutting Fluid from the Chemistry Station
 

You can make your own oil by crafting Cutting Fluid from the Chemistry Station and scrapping it. Each Cutting Fluid will yield 3 oil.

But to craft this item you will need four components:

  • Acid
  • Bone
  • Purified Water
  • Steel

Here’s how to find the components you need:

Component Locations
Acid Abraxo Cleaner, found everywhere in the Commonwealth.
Bone Super Mutant camps and bunker skeletons.
Purified Water Water purifier in a settlement.
Steel Cars and structures in settlements.
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Lucas Rodrigues

Lucas is an avid traveler and foodie from Portugal. He has been playing video games all his life, from great adventures to online competitive games. In his free time, he enjoys outdoor activities like going to the beach or for a hike, learning about Asian food, and of course, reconnecting with friends from all over the world, through video games.