[1] Like Wang's debut feature—the nine-hour Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks—Crude Oil is notable for extreme length, running to 840 minutes (14 hours).
The original plan called for a 70-hour film, but Wang felt compelled to exert additional editorial control and reduced the work to its present length.
[2] The director himself came down with severe altitude sickness and left the location three days into the one-week shoot; his crew completed the remainder without him.
[3] Crude Oil premiered (in a video installation setting) at the 2008 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it received a NETPAC "Special Mention" for "its dispassionate expose of the hardship of human labour which is the basis of economic progress.
[5] Its North American premiere was at The Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2009, with screenings held in Gallery 6 at the Hammer Museum.