As I said Howling Wilderness most likely underestimated the amount of oil being produced in southern Illinois - I highly doubt that the people who wrote the module knew there were 13,000 active wells in the state at the time -
as for the muscle power of men and animals to drill oil -
you are assuming that the pump jacks were all running off the grid and thus need to now be powered by men or animals because there is no more power - but most pump jacks run off generators that run diesel fuel instead of the grid - and where you have multiple wells you would have a single generator running multiple pump jacks
As for where the fuel comes from – you could use tech that is very old and well known in the gas and oil industry to get a "teapot" refinery going to refine the diesel you need to keep the generator going - or you can convert the generator to run off alcohol just like in the game (the portable generators in the equipment list) and use that oil for other purposes
thus you don't need to be on mule or manpower to pump that oil – and while many oil wells in the state are only pumping 1-2 barrels per day there are lots of them pumping a lot more – and you could easily see the Army using their portable generators and vehicles to power those pumps and thus get the gas and oil and lubricants they need to keep them going
As for getting the oil to Robinson – I have a feeling the Army would come up with some nice incentives for people who haul oil there to make it into gasoline and jet fuel and other things they need – things like medical care, ammunition, weapon repairs, etc. – could see a whole barter system where oil arrives in a multitude of ways for trading it for useful items – a la Waterworld or Mad Max Thunderdome type set up
(that right there gives me a whole bunch of ideas for campaigns for the GM's in the crowd - "you need mortar rounds, well sure we got some for sale - that's two barrels of crude")
And I don’t see the 194th wasting away a la Howling Wilderness – if the country is falling apart and being in the military means you have guns and power to be able to get food and energy then I highly doubt they would have much trouble recruiting to keep their numbers up - especially if their running that refinery means they have access to all kinds of interesting things versus deserting and taking your chances
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