Fallout 4 introduced settlements to the franchise for the first time. You can sink many hours into building your own town and crafting weaponry. Now, all the junk found in the wasteland can be broken down into components. You then use these components to improve your weapons, armor, and settlements.
Oil is one of these crafting components that you can find in the Commonwealth. Oil is very important as it’s a necessary resource to build turrets, water purifiers, generators, and other machines in your settlements. You will also need oil to upgrade certain weapons and craft explosives. This guide will show you where you can get oil in Fallout 4.
Updated February 24, 2026 by Marc Santos: Like many other crafting materials in Fallout 4, Oil is one of those things that you seemingly never have any of when you need it. Taking a stroll in the wasteland in search of Oil can be quite the bother, so we’ve updated this guide to include a section on how to make Oil in Fallout 4 yourself.
Junk Items
There are several junk items that contain oil. Storing them in your settlement workshop will add to the amount you have. You can also drop the items and scrap them to immediately extract the oil to add to your inventory. Oil can be found in items that make sense to contain it, such as lighters and gas canisters. Leveling up the Scrapper perk will net you more components from junk items. The following list contains all items that can be broken down for oil and the areas where you can find a decent amount.
|
Item |
Locations |
|---|---|
|
Aluminum Canister |
Six are located in the Memory Den |
|
Aluminun Oil Can |
One at Vault 81 |
|
Blowtorch |
Four in the Liberty Prime hangar at Boston Airport |
|
Fumigus Blowtorch |
One at the Boston Mayoral Shelter |
|
Blue Paint |
Three inside Hardware Town |
|
Condensed Fog (Far Harbor) |
Found in basins of Fog Condenser machines |
|
Cooking Oil |
Three can be found at Jamaica Plain |
|
Cutting Fluid |
Crafted at Chemistry Stations |
|
Flip Lighter |
Four in Fort Hagen |
|
Gas Canister |
Four at Park Street Station |
|
Gold Plated Flip Lighter |
Two in Med-Tek Research |
|
Industrial Size Shortening |
One can be found in Boston Mayoral Shelter |
|
Lantern |
Eight can be found at Dunwich Borers |
|
Mr. Handy Fuel |
Four near the Super Duper Mart entrance |
|
Oil Can |
One at Bunker Hill |
|
Oil Canister |
Many can be found in forts and factories |
|
Paint Can |
Four in the Federal Ration Stockpile |
|
Red Paint (Nuka World) |
14 in Nuka-Town Backstage |
|
Soap |
Search bathrooms in the wasteland |
|
Used Oil Can |
Three in Sanctuary Hills |
|
Yellow Paint |
Three at Federal Ration Stockpile |
How to Craft Oil in Fallout 4
If you’d rather not go out into the wasteland in search of Oil, you can always just make some yourself. To do this, you’ll need to make Cutting Fluid at a Chemistry Station using the following materials:
- 2 Acid
- 8 Bone
- 2 Purified Water
- 3 Steel
Scrapping Cutting Fluid yields 3 Oil and 1 Steel.
You can get plenty of Bone by looting all sorts of actual bones like skulls, jaws, arms, and teeth. Meanwhile, you can get Acid by scrapping batteries, coolants, Abraxo Cleaners, and insect organs like Bloatfly Glands and Bloodbug Probosces. Steel is very common, and you should have no trouble finding it as long as you’re regularly scrapping junk and excess weapons.
As for Purified Water, you’ll want to set up Water Purifiers in one of your settlements. You can also get some Purified Water by cooking three units of Dirty Water at a Cooking Station.
Fallout 4 Oil Item ID: 001BF732 (1 unit of Oil)
Shipments
You can also buy shipments of components. Visit certain vendors to buy junk in bulk. Here is where you can find oil shipments in the Commonwealth.
- Trashcan Carla: Sanctuary Hills or Drumlin Diner
- KL-E-0: Goodneighbor
- Proctor Teagen: The Prydwen
- The Mechanist: Mechanist’s Lair
