I have to believe this has been asked and answered elsewhere, but searches didn't give me anything useful.

Is it possible to saturate a market in the global economy? For example, if one oil refinery earns me a gazillion dollars a year, should five refineries earn me five gazillion? Or will the demand diminish due to my over-supplying?

I don't think there's a decreasing return to scale for exports since Tropico is a comparatively small nation. So yes, five refineries should produce five times the revenue of one.

Though in practice the output of each will be influenced by the amount of oil you can import for each, the experience of your engineers and the amount of time they can spend at work.

Great. Thanks for the good info!!

at times your export values can drop though. there are times when you get a decrease for things you did, and others are scripted. You can also boost exports at random by sending a trade deligation to USSR, or USA. You need an airport for that though. They both have different things that can happen though.

USSR at times will give free tennements too.

Oil & Oil Products are both a special case. They increase in price steadily with time. Crude starts in the low-ish 1000s and I've seen it hit mid-$2000s by the end of the game; products I'm pretty sure start in the $3,500 range and eventually hit over $5k, I think possibly in the $5,500-range or so but I'm not sure. Hence why you should always withhold petrol until the tanks are full, the longer you wait the higher the price.

(28-02-2012 02:46 AM)BHunterSEAL Wrote:  Oil & Oil Products are both a special case. They increase in price steadily with time. Crude starts in the low-ish 1000s and I've seen it hit mid-$2000s by the end of the game; products I'm pretty sure start in the $3,500 range and eventually hit over $5k, I think possibly in the $5,500-range or so but I'm not sure. Hence why you should always withhold petrol until the tanks are full, the longer you wait the higher the price.

i did not know that.. Soo that is why there is a way to not export it! Thanks for that info..

Why did I never think of that lol? Thats a good tip about withholding the petrol.

I was wrong about the prices (but not far off!), difference could be that I have traits or customs or any number of things that would modify the base prices. Here are the correct ones from Swixel's modding guide:

Crude Oil: Oil Products:
1950: 1300 1950: 3500
1960: 1400 1960: 3600
1970: 1500 1970: 3700
1980: 1800 1980: 4500
1990: 1900 1990: 5000
2000: 2250 2000: 5200

The big jumps are between '70 and '80 and '80-90, which is relatively true-to-life (what isn't is how dramatically the crack spreads change over time). So an interesting strategy would be to start the industry in the 60s (which is about right given what it needs), hold until the 1/1/1980, sell everything--you should have full tanks by then--then immediately withhold again until you next reach capacity, which will probably be mid-1990s.

You see I don't usually exploit oil resorurces that much but I like the strategy there. I might go drilling for the stuff a bit more carefulley and often now.