Petróleo
Petróleo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Look at the map in front of you. It represents an imaginary country whose only wealth is oil.
Since you cannot explore all of it, divide part of your territory into squares on land and at sea (exploration zones), authorising international oil companies to explore for oil in exchange for a set payment.
Each square needs a prospecting licence (cards bearing the companies' symbols), which the interested company buys from the bank.
The country also charges various taxes, and grants various privileges to the oil companies.
All business is carried out through the bank, the "Banco da Kartolândia".
Note that this game is not only a game of luck; it is mainly a game that tests your intelligence in business.
On your turn you may use the card you are going to play to increase your company's power, or you may seek to sell the privilege that card offers to another company that is interested in it.
The order of play never changes. If you sell your card to another company, the company that bought it has the right to play again on its turn.
Never forget to pay taxes.
Always keep in mind that to acquire an oil or gas deposit you must follow this order:
- You must buy a prospecting licence (cards with the company symbols).
- You must buy a prospecting tower to place on the licence.
- Only after doing steps 1 and 2 may you replace the prospecting tower with an oil or gas deposit. Only from then on do you begin to earn profits when passing the fiscal year-end.
If you buy tankers or tank trucks, you do not have to pay a licence. The vessel or truck comes together with a marker identifying the company that bought it.
Read all the rules carefully, especially the chapter "Princípio e fim do jogo" (Beginning and end of the game).
Distribution of the Game
The players shall nominate among themselves who will be the banker.
The banker holds all the assets of the bank, but may not take any benefit from this.
Next, the banker shuffles the cards. The game is made up of 60 cards, but these are only all used when there are six players. If there are fewer than six players, the banker uses the table below and removes from the game the cards that are left over.
TABLE — Value of the cards by number of players
| Card value | 6 players | 5 players | 4 players | 3 players | 2 players |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 prospecting tower or 1 licence | 14 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Buy 1 gas reservoir | 9 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 3 |
| Buy 1 reservoir of 6 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 3 |
| Buy 1 reservoir of 4 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
After the cards are distributed, the banker deals five cards to each player and places the remaining cards on the board, on the square that reads "place the cards here face down" ("coloque aqui as cartas com as costas voltadas para cima").
After dealing the cards, the banker also gives each player cheques for 200 million Kartos, which is the starting capital of each participant.
The players then choose the name of the oil company they will play with.
The company symbols are not distributed, since they represent the licences that each player buys as the game goes on.
It is the banker's duty to pay, receive, distribute or collect the towers and reservoirs, exploration licences, nationalisations, tankers and tank trucks, and to supervise the proper running of the game.
Value of the Cards
Each card gives two indications:
- the number of squares the blue marker must advance on the squares around the map; and
- what the player may buy or negotiate, if he can and wishes to.
Example: If you play a card entitling you to buy a reservoir, but you cannot do so because you do not yet have a tower, see whether another company (the partner in the game) wants to buy the card from you. If more than one company is interested, hold an auction and sell it to whoever offers the most.
The company that buys the reservoir from you, in addition to paying you for the purchase, must also pay the bank the value of the reservoir.
Note, however, that you must rigorously follow what the rules say for each specific case.
You may negotiate any type of card if you cannot use it yourself.
If, on the other hand, you play a card entitling you to buy, for example, a reservoir, but cannot do so because you do not meet the required conditions and no other company is interested in negotiating, you lose the right to it.
Value of the Cards (continued)
Reservoir of 6 M.T. — If you hold an exploration licence with a tower, hand the tower to the bank and place, on top of your licence, a deposit of 6 M.T. in its place.
- Pay the bank for expenses: 10 million Kartos.
- Annual profit: 20.
Reservoir of 4 M.T. — If you hold an exploration licence with a tower, hand the tower to the bank and place, on top of your licence, a deposit of 4 M.T. in its place.
- Pay the bank for expenses: 7 million Kartos.
- Annual profit: 14.
Reservoir of 2 M.T. — If you hold an exploration licence with a tower, hand the tower to the bank and place, on top of your licence, a deposit of 2 M.T. in its place.
- Pay the bank for expenses: 5 million Kartos.
- Annual profit: 10.
Gas reservoir — If you hold an exploration licence with a tower, hand the tower to the bank and place, on top of your licence, a gas deposit in its place.
- Pay the bank for expenses: 6 million Kartos.
- Annual profit: 12.
May buy a tanker — At this moment you may buy a tanker if your capital allows it.
If by chance you have no money at all, you may buy it in partnership with another company, asking your fellow players which of them is interested.
If more than one is interested, make the choice.
If none wants to and you remain interested, make the deal with the bank.
If you alone buy the tanker, place one of your licences in the port and a tanker on top of it.
If you buy in partnership with another company, place two licences in the port, one of yours and one of the company you partnered with, one on top of the other; your own licence goes on top, and the tanker is placed on top of the two licences.
If you partner with the bank, place your licence in the port, the tanker on top of it, and beside the tanker a green marker.
The partnership must always be split half and half (50% for each company) in profits and losses, and only your licence commands the operations.
At any time on your turn you may end the partnership by proposing to your partner that he buy or sell your share. If he is not interested, he may sell his share to the bank. You then withdraw your licence and place a green marker. In the future your former partner becomes a partner of the tanker together with the bank.
- Value of the tanker: 300 million Kartos.
- Annual profit: 100.
May buy a tank truck — If this card comes up, you may buy a tank truck.
Place one of your company's licences in the industrial zone, outside the prospecting squares, and a truck on top of it.
- Pay the bank the value of the truck: 5 million Kartos.
- Annual profit: 5.
May buy a tower or a licence — If this card comes up, you must choose one of two things: buying a tower, or buying an exploration licence on land or at sea.
If you sell the card to another company, that company must also choose.
Costs for the tower or licence card (paid to the bank):
- Tower on land: 5 million Kartos.
- Tower at sea: 12 million Kartos.
- Prospecting licence on land: 7 million Kartos.
- Prospecting licence at sea: 5 million Kartos.
Note (OBS.): Annual profits are paid by the bank to all companies whenever the marker passes or stops on the square "Passagem do Ano" (Year-end passage).
If there are four players or fewer, a new "Passagem de Ano" square may be made on the opposite square bearing the same drawing.
When a licence is placed under a tanker or a tank truck, nothing is paid to the bank for that licence.
Specification of the Squares Around the Map
1. Year-end passage (Passagem de Ano) — To begin the game the marker is placed on this square, and it moves as many squares as the card indicates.
Whenever, later in the game, the marker passes through this square, whether it stops there or moves beyond it, every player who owns oil deposits, gas deposits, tank trucks or tankers receives the annual profits of the respective oil companies. The profits are those specified on the card values.
2. Two licences not in exploration are confiscated — This penalty only takes effect from the third passage of the marker through the "Passagem de Ano" square, to give the oil companies time to buy prospecting towers.
Licences are considered to be in exploration if they carry a tower or a deposit.
3. Offshore exploration licence — If you are interested, you may buy an oil exploration licence at sea.
- Cost of the licence: 5 million Kartos.
4. Storm — oil tanker damaged — A storm has caused serious damage to a tanker. To repair it you (or the company) must pay the bank 50 million Kartos.
5. Land exploration licence — If you are interested, buy an oil exploration licence on land.
- Cost of the licence: 7 million Kartos.
6. Oil tax — Pay the bank for each oil deposit:
- 2 M.T. deposit — 2 million Kartos;
- 4 M.T. deposit — 4 million Kartos;
- 6 M.T. deposit — 6 million Kartos.
7. Buy a prospecting tower — If you hold exploration licences at sea or on land, you may now buy an oil prospecting tower.
- Cost of the tower to place on an offshore licence: 12 million Kartos.
- Cost of the tower to place on a land licence: 5 million Kartos.
8. Income tax — Pay the bank for each of the following:
- 2 M.T. deposit — 1 million Kartos;
- 4 M.T. deposit — 2 million Kartos;
- 6 M.T. deposit — 3 million Kartos;
- Tank truck: 1 million Kartos;
- Tanker: 10 million Kartos;
- Prospecting tower: 1 million Kartos.
Also pay 10% of all your money, after paying the taxes described above.
If accounts are rounded, the rounding is in favour of the bank.
9. Fire in the oil deposits — Pay the bank for repairs: 5 million Kartos.
10. Storm — great damage to repairs on a tower — Pay the bank: 4 million Kartos.
11. Gas tax — Pay the bank for each gas deposit: 4 million Kartos.
12. Tank truck disaster — Pay the bank for the damage caused: 3 million Kartos.
13. Nationalisation — The Government has decided to nationalise your company. From this moment, half of the assets that your company owns, or comes to own, in deposits and trucks belong to the Government.
Place a red marker beside each oil or gas deposit you own, and beside each tank truck you own.
Tankers are not nationalised.
While the nationalisation lasts, the profits or losses of your company are divided in half: you only receive or pay half of what the game indicates.
If at the end of the game your company is still nationalised, only half will count when the accounts are settled, because the other half belongs to the State.
14. Rise in the price of oil — Because the price of oil has risen, receive from the bank for each:
- 2 M.T. deposit — 4 million Kartos;
- 4 M.T. deposit — 8 million Kartos;
- 6 M.T. deposit — 12 million Kartos.
15. Fire in a well — If you have at least one licence with an oil prospecting tower, at sea or on land, pay the bank for the repair of the tower damaged by the fire: 4 million Kartos.
16. Dry well — One of your oil prospecting towers has stopped producing. Hand the bank the licence and its tower.
If you have no tower, you have nothing to hand over or pay.
17. Free enterprise — If your company was nationalised, it stops being nationalised from this moment.
Remove all the red markers that were beside your oil, gas and tank truck deposits.
From this moment you alone receive all the profits and bear all the losses of your company.
18. Fire in a gas deposit — A large fire caused damage to one of your gas deposits. Pay the bank for repairs: 5 million Kartos.
19. Fall in the price of oil — Because the price of oil has fallen on the international market owing to competition, pay the bank for each:
- 2 M.T. deposit — 2 million Kartos;
- 4 M.T. deposit — 4 million Kartos;
- 6 M.T. deposit — 6 million Kartos.
20. At your convenience — If the marker lands on this square when you play, you may choose, from among the previous 19 squares, whichever one interests you most.
Components of the Game
Each box of "Petróleo" contains the following material:
- 28 prospecting towers
- 5 tankers
- 5 tank trucks
- 9 oil reservoirs of 6 M.T.
- 9 oil reservoirs of 4 M.T.
- 9 oil reservoirs of 2 M.T.
- 9 gas reservoirs
- 30 exploration licences per company
- 60 cards
- 20 red markers indicating nationalisation
- 5 green markers indicating a partnership with the bank
- 1 blue marker to mark the position of the game on the squares around the map
- 40 cheques of the Banco da Kartolândia, each worth 1 million Kartos
- 20 cheques worth 5 million Kartos
- 20 cheques worth 10 million Kartos
- 60 cheques worth 20 million Kartos
- 60 cheques worth 50 million Kartos
Beginning and End of the Game
The player to the left of the banker begins the game by placing the blue marker on the square "Passagem de Ano" (Year-end passage). He then draws a card from the deck and adds it to those he already holds. He sees which card he is interested in playing and places it beside the deck, face down, carrying out, if he wishes and is able, what it says. He then advances the blue marker the number of squares the card he played indicates, and his turn ends there.
The turn then passes to the player on the left, who proceeds as follows:
- He carries out what the square on which the blue marker is placed says.
- He draws a card from the deck and adds it to those he holds. He sees which card he is interested in playing and places it beside the deck, face down.
- He carries out what that card says, if he is able and wishes to.
- He advances the blue marker the number of squares the card indicates, and his turn ends there.
The player to the left of this one then takes his turn, doing exactly what the previous player did, in the same order, and so on in succession.
The blue marker always moves around the squares that surround the map, and always in the direction of the arrow.
For a better understanding, read carefully what the rules say for each case.
End of the Game
When the cards in the deck have run out, the players continue to play until the last card in each hand is exhausted, that is, until all the participants have played 10 times each.
The winner is the one who, adding up all his values (prospecting towers, oil and gas reservoirs, tankers, tank trucks and cheques), has achieved the greatest capital.
For accounting purposes, the value of each piece of material (towers, reservoirs, etc.) is fixed, and is the value indicated at the time of purchase.
Licences have no value at the end for accounting purposes.
Bank Loans and Bankruptcy
If by chance the bank runs out of money, it may borrow from one or more players, paying 10% interest immediately.
If the player who runs out of money is one of the players, he must abandon the game, and the bankrupt company's assets are removed from the board.
Doubling Rule
When starting the game, the first time the marker lands on square 3 or square 5 (buying a licence at sea or on land), a player may double: he may buy two licences of the square that came up.
This very special case may be used only once per player, right at the start of the game, the first time he lands on a square with these numbers.
If a player forgets, he has lost the opportunity.
Player Aid: Memorando do "Petróleo"
This is the separate printed quick-reference card that came with the game, transcribed as a player aid. It repeats the rules above.
Start of the game
- Look at the table to find the number of cards to use.
- Deal five cards to each player and place the remaining cards in the place indicated on the board.
- Give 200 thousand Kartos to each player. (Printed as "200 mil Kartos" on the card; the booklet's distribution section above gives 200 million Kartos. The booklet figure is transcribed as the rule, since the cheques in the box are in denominations of 1 million Kartos and up.)
- Choose one company for each player.
- Begin the game by placing the blue marker on the "passagem de ano" (Year-end passage) square.
Evolution of a purchase: Prospecting licence → prospecting tower → one of: oil reservoir of 6 M.T., oil reservoir of 4 M.T., oil reservoir of 2 M.T., or gas reservoir.
Values and profits
| Item | Purchase | Annual profit |
|---|---|---|
| Reservoir 6 M.T. | 10 M.K. | 20 M.K. |
| Reservoir 4 M.T. | 7 M.K. | 14 M.K. |
| Reservoir 2 M.T. | 5 M.K. | 10 M.K. |
| Gas reservoir | 6 M.K. | 12 M.K. |
| Tanker | 300 M.K. | 100 M.K. |
| Tank truck | 5 M.K. | 5 M.K. |
| Licence on land | 7 M.K. | — |
| Licence at sea | 5 M.K. | — |
| Prospecting tower on land |
(M.K. = million Kartos.)