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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
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:
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:
Open the workshop from one of your settlements
Try to craft something that requires a material you don’t have
You will see a “TAG FOR SEARCH” option
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
Once you have the items you were looking for, you need to transform them into oil. To do this:
Store your junk items inside one of your workshops
Craft something that requires oil
The workshop will automatically convert that item into its raw materials
How to store junk in your workshop
Buying Oil From NPCs
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:
The location of all NPCs that sell shipments of oil. Source
Alternative: Making Your Own Oil
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.
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.
