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In Alien the Nostromo is on the way back to Earth bearing cargo, when it is redirected to investigate the distress signal from the downed ship.

Where had it been? I know it was carrying (in the novelisation) crude oil but where had this come from? Was there a colony and the Nostromo was just a cargo ship or did the crew gather the resources themselves?

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As best I can tell, they were on their way back from Thedus, a resource-rich planet outside the Outer Veil.

From the shooting script:

DALLAS
First time. I went five hauls
with another science man. Then
two days before we left Thedus,
replaced him with Ash.

Another potential answer is "the Solomons" as per this line of dialogue:

Ripley This is commercial towing vehicle Nostromo out of the Solomons, registration number 1-8-0-niner-2-4-6-0-niner. Calling Antarctica traffic control. Do you read me? Over.

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  • Maybe not, the Solomon Islands are a popular offshore location to register ships, maybe they kept going into spaceships. A ship is "out of" its registered port, so could be from there.
    – The Wandering Dev Manager
    Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 14:28
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    @TheWanderingDevManager: And, as a further point against it, I've found references that that line was originally "out of Houston" (although the shooting script has neither), reinforcing that that's probably the Earth part of its origin. No, Thedus looks to be the most likely case.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 14:41
  • Or, the solomons is a collective name for a group of planets, inspired by the islands on earth, and Thedus is one of the Solomons.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 1:06

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