Crude Empire

Oil business strategy

Crude Empire is a PC business strategy game set in West Texas during the oil boom. You start with a small budget and a survey map of the Permian Basin, then build an oil company that finds fields, drills wells, moves crude through pipelines, refines it into gasoline and sells it at your own stations.

Oil wells run dry over time, so you’ll need to keep searching for new fields. Aerial scans mark areas likely to hold oil, and geology teams pinpoint deposits. You can drill wells yourself, keeping the bore straight and easing off when the gas lamp blinks; careful drilling can increase a well’s output by up to 15%. Or you can leave the drilling to a crew.