SimRefinery is a computer management simulation game designed to simulate Chevron Corporation

Chevron Corporation

Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...

's refinery operation. It was developed by Maxis

Maxis

Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...

 in 1993.

SimRefinery was developed by Maxis after the success of SimCity

SimCity

SimCity is a critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, first released in 1989, and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1994,...

. After rejecting several requests from companies, the team eventually agreed to make a prototype for Chevron. In the words of Will Wright:
The user's role in the simulation was the plant manager of a refinery. One of the things the user learned was about supply and demand

Supply and demand

Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers , resulting in an...

and how it affects the financial situation.

As a commissioned business aid, it was not made available to the public.

SimRefinery resembled Sim City with different graphics, disasters and rules; the latter to represent oil tanker ports, petroleum storage and piping systems.