The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Beijing, Siheyuan.

Liu Tao looked at the intelligence in his hand and shook his head slightly.

The outbreak of this ship attack really caught everyone off guard.

This chain reaction is exactly what the saying goes: a single move affects the whole body!

At first, Iraq only wanted to sink a few warships in Khomeini Port to disgust the Persians, but it resulted in the Persians' revenge.

The Persians gave Iraq a hard time and directly destroyed the Iraqi navy.

Then Iraq retaliated against the Persians by attacking Persian tankers; the Persians also retaliated against the Iraqis by attacking Iraqi tankers.

You know, the price of oil is high now. Even at the previous price of $35 per barrel, a 100,000-ton tanker, as long as the 100,000-ton tanker is sunk, it means a loss of 733,000 barrels of oil, and the oil alone is worth $25.655 million.

As for a 100,000-ton tanker, it is worth a lot of money.

However, the biggest loss in this ship attack was not Iraq, but Persia.

Khuzestan Province in Persia is one of the 30 provinces of Persia, with an area of ​​63,213 square kilometers. It borders Ilam, Lorestan and Isfahan provinces to the north, Chahamahal-Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh-Bove-Ahmed and Bushir provinces to the east, Iraq to the west and the Persian Gulf to the south.

The eastern and northern parts of this province are all mountainous, while the southwestern part is a rare plain in Persia. The land here is fertile, and there are rich oil resources under the land. It is the main oil-producing province in Persia. It is also a coastal area with two ports, Abadan and Khomeini. Therefore, the strategic location here is very important.

When the Iran-Iraq War broke out, Iraq took a fancy to this place and attacked Persia in three ways, among which the southern route was the most powerful. It's just a pity that Abadan and Khomeini have a special geographical location, and the Iraqi army failed to take them after several attacks.

So far, Iraq occupies the western and southern parts of Khuzestan Province, which are plains. Only Abadan and Khomeini Port are still in the hands of the Persians in the western and southern parts of Khuzestan Province. As for the mountainous areas in the east and north of Khuzestan Province, they are controlled by the Persians.

Khuzestan Province accounts for 90% of Persia's total crude oil reserves! Persia's total oil reserves account for 11% of the world's total, and Iraq accounts for 9.7%.

If Iraq occupies the entire Khuzestan Province, then Iraq is equivalent to nearly 20% of the world's oil reserves.

This number is very amazing.

In recent years, Iraq has also been mining oil in the occupied areas, and as a counterpart, Abadan and Khomeini Port also continue to export oil. The two sides have a tacit understanding.

In general, Iraq has a narrow outlet to the sea. Although it can be loaded through Kuwait's oil pipeline, Iraq's daily oil production in the south and occupied areas is very small, probably less than 1 million barrels. Iraq's main export oil is transported to Turkey through domestic oil pipelines and then exported from Turkey.

Persia is different. Most of Persia's oil exports are from Abadan and Khomeini Port.

This outbreak of ship raids has a greater impact on Persia.

Liu Tao pondered for a moment and murmured to himself: "It seems necessary to contact old friends. Fighting is fine, but it can't affect making money."

Over the years, he has earned a lot of money every year by acting as a middleman and exporting oil to Persia.

Now that the war of attacking ships has broken out between Iran and Iraq, it would be bad if his merchant ships were attacked.

Here, many merchant ships go to the Persian Gulf every day, and then transport oil from the Persian Gulf to the world.

It can be said that he is the real beneficiary.

Afterwards, Liu Tao made an appointment with Usama and Malaek.

It turned out that his old friends Al and Mohammed had returned to their country and served as foreign ministers respectively. Usama took over Al's job and was responsible for Iraq's affairs in China.

And Malaek also took over Mohammed's job.

Liu Tao has a good relationship with them, and China is a friendly country with them, and they cooperate with each other for mutual benefit. Liu Tao believes that as long as he communicates well, Iraq and Persia should still be willing to give face.

And in Liu Tao's view, this can also be seen as an opportunity to make a fortune.

When the war of attacking ships broke out between Iran and Iraq, Liu Tao was busy and didn't realize that he had missed a chance to make a fortune. By the time he found out, the price of oil had soared, and he couldn't make much money if he entered the market again.

But it's different now. If his tankers can freely enter and leave the Persian Gulf and won't be attacked by Iran and Iraq, then the profit here will be huge.

There are fewer and fewer tankers coming out of the Persian Gulf. The greater the risk, the greater the profit. Even if the oil is only shipped to Singapore and Hong Kong, the profit will be very high.

To be honest, Liu Tao will be tempted when he thinks of the profit here.

Liu Tao learned that the situation in the Persian Gulf is very complicated now. Large tankers are cautious, and many large tankers don't even dare to enter the Persian Gulf.

To be honest, the stock market crash caused by the Black Super Monday that broke out in the United States last year affected the world, and many people even called it an economic crisis.

The price of oil once fell below $30 per barrel.

But in just a few months, the United States emerged from the shadow of the economic crisis through a series of bailouts, and other countries gradually emerged as well. In addition, the world's overall use of oil has been increasing, and Libya, an important oil exporter, has been lost.

This caused oil prices to rise again after the Spring Festival, and the international crude oil price rose to $35 per barrel again.

In just a few days during the Iran-Iraq ship attack, the international crude oil price soared and rose to $45 per barrel.

In the afternoon, Liu Tao invited Usama to drink tea, exchanged pleasantries, and talked about the friendly cooperation between the two sides.

In recent years, the relationship between the two sides has been quite close. Panshan Group alone delivers a lot of weapons to Iraq every year. The key is that Panshan Group's weapons and ammunition are very cost-effective in the international arms market, and the prices of the same level are much lower. Iraq can save a lot of money every year just by purchasing weapons and ammunition from Panshan Group and Huaxia.

Not to mention, Iraq imports a large amount of daily necessities from Huaxia every year, including industrial products, and the trade volume between the two sides has repeatedly set new highs.

Huaxia has been importing crude oil from Iraq since three years ago. At that time, it was not that Huaxia's oil was not enough for its own use, but that crude oil was refined and processed into finished oil and exported to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Moreover, after so many years of cooperation, Iraq has been very sure that China is a good partner. The two sides have signed contracts and have not failed to fulfill them so far. Unlike Europe and the United States, Iraq ordered warships from Italy in 1980 and paid the money, but now there is no sign of the warships.

Before coming to China, Usama was repeatedly told by his superiors to do a good job in this regard in China and maintain friendly relations between the two sides.

This time Liu Tao personally invited him to drink tea, and Usama naturally wanted to bring the two sides closer and maintain a friendly partnership.