Into Unscientific

"Segawa-san, how long can Amaterasu delay this news at all costs?"

Kurogane Taimei's words were a bit sudden in rhythm, causing Takeshi Segawa to feel dazed for a moment again.

However, as the top person in charge of the Neon Intelligence field, Takeshi Segawa's thinking acuity is still much higher than that of ordinary people.

So soon, a hint of enlightenment flashed in his eyes:

"Chief Cabinet Secretary, is this what you mean?"

Black Gold Taimei nodded readily and admitted:

"Yes, if Amaterasu can delay for some time, we may have a chance to grab some pieces of meat from the Chinese people."

"After all, they don't know the information that the Mao Xiong nuclear launcher was discovered across the sea. If we can quickly reach some transaction intentions with the other party, I don't think a 20% profit is a big problem."

"Of course, this is just my opinion. Whether it is feasible depends on how long Amaterasu can delay it."

Say it.

Kurogane Taimei looked at Segawa Takeshi expectantly.

Probably a few months ago.

China imported a batch of crude oil through several channels. Since this transaction involved the interest-free loan provided by Neon, Black Gold Taimei also knew about it.

Today, China just dug out its first oil from Karamay seven years ago, and the Songji 3 well in Daqing just sprayed oil three years ago. Although it is located in Daqing, a world-class oil field, it is still in a relatively early stage of exploration and construction.

According to the estimates of all parties.

China will probably not be able to officially exploit the Daqing Oilfield until the end of next year, so China will basically need to import its oil during this period.

Today, China's annual oil import dependence is 44.5%. Imported crude oil cost 480 million yuan per year three years ago, making it the most expensive item among all imported materials in China.

During this period, the exchange rate between the Chinese currency and the U.S. dollar was only 2.4618 to 1. That is, the amount of crude oil imported by China three years ago exceeded 200 million U.S. dollars.

at the same time.

OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, headed by several crescent countries in the Middle East, was just established two years ago - if you are not familiar with this code name, have you heard of OPEC?

After OPEC was established, it began to frantically promote its products to red countries.

Therefore, although China's move to import more than one billion U.S. dollars of crude oil last year attracted a lot of attention, the overall behavior is still logical-after all, China's industrial system has an increasing demand for crude oil. If the Daqing Oilfield or Cold Lake mining is not going so well, so it makes sense for the rabbits to store some crude oil.

At that time, Heijin Taimei was still laughing and chatting with other neon politicians, saying that these Chinese people were going too far in planning for a rainy day.

What I didn't expect was that

The Chinese people's approach to the late stage of hamster disease unexpectedly coincided with the upcoming crisis in the sugar cane country.

To know.

In modern times, whenever wars and conflicts are involved, international oil prices will inevitably rise sharply. This behavior can be called an economic theorem.

But just when Heijin Taimei expressed envy, jealousy and hatred towards the upstart Hua Xia, he suddenly discovered something:

its not right.

The information Amaterasu sent back was top secret. Even Melody across the sea may not know it now, let alone the Chinese people who are more than 10,000 kilometers across the sea.

In other words, if Amaterasu can delay some time, given the geographical location of Huaxia and Neon, might Neon not be able to get a share of the pie?

Of course.

Again.

These are all temporary ideas of Black Gold Taimei. Whether they are feasible or not depends on how long Amaterasu can delay.

If we just drag it on for a day and a half, just kidding, this amount of time won’t even be enough for contact.

"."

Then, under the gaze of Kurogane Taimi, Segawa Takeshi thought seriously for a while:

"Chief Cabinet Secretary, according to the information Amaterasu has sent back so far, those photos are still in the early stages of screening."

"Amaterasu is now the GSA's chief expert in image identification. If he delays the process for the sake of stability, I don't think it will be a problem for more than three or four days."

"If you also include the decision-making time on the other side of Shanghai, I think the overall time can be extended by about five to six days." (Note: As a note for anti-bang, the photo was originally taken on the 14th opposite Shanghai, and it took two days to be appraised before it was sent to Miller The emperor held a meeting for four days, and it took two more days before the order was issued.)

"Five to six days?"

Black Gold Taimei touched her chin, a glimmer of light flashed in her eyes, and she analyzed:

"If we use a few more connections in the parliament, we should be able to get two more days."

"Including the process on the opposite side of Shanghai, the theoretical time difference is about 12 to 14 days."

Thinking of this, Black Gold Taimei suddenly felt joy that could be seen with the naked eye.

Those who were in oil mines in their previous lives should all know this.

Crude oil is usually measured in "barrels" internationally. The mass of a single barrel is about 140 kilograms, which means that one ton of crude oil can be divided into seven barrels.

In the early days, crude oil was transported in barrels, such as iron barrels, steel barrels and even wooden barrels.

However, after the launch of large oil tankers, these metal barrels are rarely needed during crude oil transportation, which invisibly reduces some additional weight.

The Rabbits imported US$1.5 billion in crude oil this time, at a price of US$3.6 per barrel (cif price), which is a total of more than 400 million barrels and more than 60 million tons.

It would be easy to transport crude oil of this magnitude in later generations. For example, Xinyue exported more than one million barrels of oil to China in later generations. Before the sanctions across the sea, its global daily export volume reached 500 barrels. Thousands of tons.

Camel is even more outrageous, exporting a total of approximately 2.4 billion barrels of crude oil in 2020

But due to the current situation, although OPEC is not in the same hole as the other side of the sea, its relationship with China is not that close.

After all, the camel led by OPEC has not spent US$3.5 billion on the rabbit yet.

Therefore, the crude oil purchased by Rabbits and OPEC is now divided into two parts. One part has arrived in China, and the other part is about to be redeemed in the contract.

The nature of the latter is somewhat similar to a check, and the proportion is much higher than that of the former.

In other words.

If Neon wants to get the oil from China at this time, it only needs to deliver the contract with OPEC.

Of course, the specific operation is definitely not that simple, but the essence of the behavior is indeed the same.

However, if you want to complete such a large transaction within twelve days, both the trade reasons and the price that need to be given cannot be too small.

Then Kurogane Taimi thought for a while and asked Segawa Takeshi again:

"Segawa-san, how many thousands of tons of crude oil does our country consume every year?"

The encyclopedia Segawa Takeshi also responded quickly:

"Chief Cabinet Secretary, my country's per capita energy usage last year, that is, the per capita kilogram of oil equivalent, was 867.2030981805699." (Data comes from the World Bank.)

"The annual oil consumption is more than 6 million tons. This part of the consumption is mainly in the chemical, steel, paper and other industries, and it is increasing every year."

"Especially after Mr. Yukawa launched the research on the Yukawa model, the experimental equipment has radiated to various production industries, so even if there is no incident in the sugar cane country, our country's oil demand will definitely increase next year."

Kurogane Taimei nodded slightly.

Although Neon is a small country, due to the development of the Japanese car industry, it consumes a lot of steel, oil, and coal mines every year.

At the same time, Neon's own annual oil production is only 400,000 tons, so almost 90% of its oil consumption depends on imports.

In other words.

Neon itself also needs a large amount of oil.

As for why the rabbits were asked to trade black gold, Taimei also quickly thought of an explanation - it has something to do with OPEC.

The development history of the crude oil market can be traced back to 1870, when Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company and became the famous "Oil King", monopolizing more than 90% of the refining capacity across the sea.

Then in 1911, the Supreme Federal Court across the sea ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, which became the "first antitrust case" in the history of world business.

Standard Oil was dismantled into a total of 34 companies. Later, Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States signed a new "Red Line Agreement" to replace the "Saint Morey Agreement". The major oil companies formed seven oil companies, including Chevron and Exxon. The era represented by the Seven Sisters.

The "Seven Sisters" monopolized the oil and gas resources in the Middle East. At that time, they owned almost all the oil exploration rights in the Gulf countries, and controlled international oil prices as well as oil production and trade.

The country where the oil resources are located has neither production technology nor trade channels, so it can only be firmly controlled by Europe and the United States.

In this situation.

Two years ago, OPEC was established.

Therefore, OPEC naturally does not deal with European and American countries. In a sense, it is a bit like the situation when a wage earner sets up his own company.

Although today's neon has not left Asia and entered Europe, it is also classified as a European and American country.

Therefore, even if nothing like this happens, it will be difficult for Neon to buy oil from OPEC - it can sell it to you, but it will cost more.

On the other hand.

OPEC's delivery contract does not have such restrictions. For example, last year, West Germany just bought more than 2 million tons of OPEC crude oil delivery contract from East Germany.

In other words, Neon is currently justified in terms of both demand and trading reasons.

After realizing this, Kurogane Taimi immediately pulled Segawa Takeshi's sleeve:

"Segawa-san, come with me to see Lord Ikeda!"

Then Kurogane Taimi took Segawa Takeshi to Ikeda's office in the Prime Minister's Office Building, and met Yuto Ikeda, then the top leader of the Neon Cabinet.

Yuuto Ikeda is considered a very capable leader in the modern history of Neon. After he came to power, he revitalized Neon's economy (but also laid the groundwork for its subsequent collapse). At the same time, he also rarely maintained a relatively independent attitude towards the sea. .

For example, his slogan when he came to power was to break away from the shadow across the sea and form a future pattern of the three poles of the United States, Japan and Europe. Although this slogan seemed a bit peach, at least it played a big role in the confidence of the people in Neon at that time. Encouraging effect.

Later, when Yuuto Ikeda met with Melody Emperor, he rarely stood side by side with him. This photo has a very special historical significance in Neon country.

"."

After listening to Kurogane Taimi's explanation, Ikeda Yuuto looked at Segawa Takeshi:

"Segawa-san, are you sure that what you found across the sea is a nuclear weapons launch silo? Could it be a conventional missile launch facility?"

Segawa Takeshi heard this and his body tensed upright:

"Mr. Ikeda, I am willing to swear on the name of my family members who died in Hiroshima that there will be no problem with the information sent back by Amaterasu!"

"Amaterasu has sent back five top-secret messages in the past eight years, and all of them have been confirmed later. His loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor is beyond doubt!"

Yuto Ikeda nodded slowly and motioned for him to sit back down:

"In that case, Heijin-san, summon the cabinet members and hold an emergency meeting."

Black Gold Taimei's expression suddenly became serious:

"Hai!"

For this kind of transaction involving more than one billion U.S. dollars, Yuuto Ikeda or Taimi Kurokane obviously have little decision-making power.

Fortunately, the Prime Minister's Office where they were located was the core administrative center of Neon, so after receiving the notification, many ministers of state in the cabinet and members of the House of Representatives quickly gathered in the conference room on the seventh floor.

"Woof woof woof woof"

"Ouch ouch ouch"

After a heated discussion, the Neon Cabinet officially made a decision:

Black Gold Taimei contacted China and submitted a transaction application on the grounds of domestic industrial crude oil shortage. The transaction premium was 14% of the current price of crude oil.

This premium is an amount arrived at after repeated discussions among cabinet members. It is higher than OPEC's direct supply price, but if shipping costs are calculated, it is almost the same - OPEC's direct supply price is the FOB price, not the FOB price. CIF price.

If the crude oil contract can be obtained at this premium, Neon will be able to earn at least 40% profit as long as Haidian and Mao Xiong fire the first shot!

As for the demand for crude oil, it is 40 million tons. This number is ten times higher than Neon’s annual crude oil consumption, but it is almost the same as Neon’s crude oil reserves.

At the same time, in order to express "sincerity", Neon is also willing to provide an additional interest-free loan of 50 million yen.

In other words.

Neon's approach seems to be due to some accidents in the country and the urgent need for crude oil, but it wants to take advantage of it and is willing to give some rebates (interest-free loans).

This approach is not uncommon in modern history. For example, three years ago, Bangzi bought a batch of more than 20 million tons of coal from Kangaroo.

The global landscape at this time is actually quite special. In addition to some established powers in Europe and the United States, many later economic or industrial powers are in the development stage during this period, and there are often situations where certain resources are insufficient - of course. , transactions with relatively short cycles like this are indeed rare, but they are not particularly suspicious.

After unifying opinions on neon.

Black Gold Taimei immediately contacted Huaxia’s external relations staff. I don’t know if it was because of the ‘friendly’ relationship established by the previous interest-free loan, but Black Gold Taimei’s request actually received a reply from China within half a day.

China agreed in principle to Neon’s transaction intention, but also had the same three requirements:

First, due to contract delivery issues, 40 million tons of crude oil cannot be divided and processed, so the minimum transaction amount is 50 million tons.

Second, neon prices are relatively low, with China Ideal’s premium being 29.7%.

The third point is.

A few days ago, OPEC happened to have four 10,000-ton oil tankers arriving in Shanghai. The crude oil on board was not unloaded, and the four oil tankers carried more than 60,000 tons of oil.

China communicated with the captains of the four oil tankers and the OPEC headquarters, and both parties stated that the materials from the four oil tankers could be transported directly to Osaka via shipping routes.

"but."

Looking at Ikeda Yuuto and other ministers of state in front of him, Kurogane Taimi, who was making the introduction, paused, with a subtle expression on his face:

"For security reasons, China hopes to send a fleet to escort the tanker, and has stated that it will not enter Neon's territorial waters."

"At the same time, they consider that this is the first time that China has conducted a transaction of this scale. For the sake of safety, the number of fleets that China plans to send is a bit large."

"oh?"

Ikeda Yuuto raised his eyebrows and asked:

"Chief Cabinet Secretary Black Gold, how many ships are China planning to send?"

Black Gold Taimei glanced at him and reported a number:

"Twenty-two ships, and we are required to provide a full fleet of fuel."