Trouble building oil wells

[Osprey]

I see in the Civilopedia and in the manual that researching Combustion allows your workers to create Wells on the terrain as a way to get Oil. What does it take to be able to create them? I've researched Scientific Method, so I can see oil in ocean squares, and Combustion, which is required to build Wells. I don't have Plastics yet (required for oil platforms), but it's apparently not a requirement for Wells.

I've turned the Show Resources overlay on and looked all over the globe (most of which I've uncovered) and see no oil on land anywhere. I've also tried moving my workers to different terrain types to see if I can build wells on them and nada there, as well.

What am I missing? I'm really stumped. Thanks.

 

[Soryn Arkayn]

If you've researched both Scientific Method and Combustion you should be able to see Oil resources and build Wells, respectively. If you don't see any Oil resources than they're not there. This is surprising, because in my experience, resources -- especially vital ones like Oil -- are more equally distributed in Civ4 than they were in Civ3.

You just may be unlucky your territory doesn't have any Oil resources, but there should some Oil on your world, somewhere.

If you're truly desperate you can try digging Mines on every hill inside your territory, because there's a (VERY) small chance there's oil hidden there and the mine will reveal it. But I tried this in my last game (mainly to maximize production hammers -- I already had plenty of oil) and didn't find any hidden resources.

 

[Osprey]

Thanks, Soryn. I must be incredibly unlucky. I control almost half the globe and have no land-based oil reserves on any of it. There's also no oil on what I can see of AI territory. A two-pronged problem with ocean-based oil is that a) they're often too far out to sea to reach (unless you put a city right on the coast, but then it takes time for the culture to expand far enough), and b) they require Plastics to access (you'd think it'd be the other way around and plastics would require oil). I'll keep trying and hope to get luckier in the future. At least I got my answer. Thanks.

 

[general_kill]

a save file/screenshot?

 

[Psyringe]

Osprey, which map size did you choose?

I played on a "duel" size map and many resources were missing. For example, there weren't any horses or stone in the whole world.

I actually liked that, as that forced me to rethink my strategy. I played as mongols with 18 civs (yes, 18 civs on a duel map ) and planned to overrun the other civs with my Keshiks. I had to use melee units instead. That was a fun experience - I like it when I cannot be sure which resources will be available and which won't.

 

[Osprey]

Osprey, which map size did you choose?

I don't remember exactly, but it's fairly big. It's certainly not one of smaller maps. At the moment, somewhere on the globe, I can see at least 4 of every type of resource, except, of course, inland oil. Maybe the randomizer ended up giving me mostly offshore oil instead of inland; I don't know. It's kind of odd that I have access to 4 uranium deposits, yet oil is supposed to be easier to come by than uranium . I'm gonna have nukes before I have fighter planes, lol.

Thanks for the info, though, Psyringe. I'll know to have lower expectations when I play smaller maps.