What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 548 Eating While Slipping Around
What does it mean that Gaikin Petroleum dominates a monthly production of 900 million barrels, or 30 barrels per day?
Shell, a long-established giant and the No.1 multinational oil company, has a global daily production of just over 200 million barrels.

Moreover, Shell is backed by Dai Ying, He Lan, and several other capital giants, while Tang Wen is the only person with an absolute shareholding in Gaijin Petroleum on the surface.

This practically means that Tang Wen alone enjoys 10% of Shell Oil's profits!
Even though the empire always considered him a front man, it had no doubt that he was making a fortune from taking a cut.

That piece of land in the South China Sea seemed so ordinary before, how did Gaijin manage to snatch it up first?
In fact, when oil was first discovered in the Spratly Islands, it was the surrounding neighbors who broke through the defenses, especially Japan, which was so jealous of this excellent light crude oil deposit that it even tried to send an exploration team to the East Sands, but naturally came up empty-handed.

The Prism Building didn't have any ill intentions towards the oil reserves. After all, the geographical location of the Spratly Islands was destined to be anything but peaceful. It could simply stand by and watch, occasionally stirring up trouble.

They were more interested in Geiger's oil technology.

A few months ago, the incident on Miãos Island almost ignited tensions between Luzon and Java, and Luzon also dragged the American company Schlumberger into the fray, hoping to replace Gejn in oil extraction.

Schlumberger's final conclusion was quite surprising:

Mionas Island has no oil reserves.

Of course, this was an internal conclusion. When facing Luzon, they first pretended to be reserved and squeezed out a fee, and then said that the exploration was too difficult and not worth the effort, thus saving face.

After all, Gaijin had actually extracted a lot of oil before they came, and some of it was still piled up in the oil storage tank. If they said there was none, wouldn't that be ignoring the facts and just making people laugh?

But the think tank kept this in mind, since oil in the Nansha Islands has become a major problem for the geological community.

At an international geological conference held in Copenhagen this October, the participating scholars only spent the opening morning praising each other and presenting their findings. The next two and a half days were spent studying the formation of oil in the Spratly Islands and the extraction routes.

The final conclusions all lead to one fact:
Gekin Company possesses mining technologies that differ from mainstream methods, or some kind of low-cost underground distillation technology.

The Carnegie Institution of the Empire changed its approach, no longer investigating the root causes of oil in the Spratly Islands and Mionas Island, but instead summarizing their geological characteristics and environment, and then searching around the world for similar places where high-grade crude oil could also be extracted.

There are countless marine landforms similar to those in the Spratly Islands and Miãos Island around the world. The Carnegie Institution's supercomputing fitting results show that there are many such landforms globally, especially in the vicinity of the Empire, a country with two oceans.

This conclusion is purely speculative and lacks rigorous theoretical support, but it's enough to get the federal leadership thinking.
"If the Empire masters this technology, does it mean that the Empire itself can become a major oil producer and control oil prices?"

The enticing prospects were so appealing that the Federation regretted not discussing oil technology when they released Tang Wen not long ago.

However, the latter's behavior was very friendly, especially since he was the chief architect of the Empire's mobile internet and had a good relationship with the top management, so the IAA couldn't very well act awkwardly.

Finally, one day, just before Tang Wen was about to make a promise to Zhao Hande about bonds, he ordered a bowl of fermented bean juice at a braised pork shop out of curiosity. At that moment, a foreigner stood in front of his table and handed him a business card.

"Hello Mr. Tang, I am Jones, Assistant General Manager of Schlumberger Asia. May I take a moment of your valuable time?"

Tang Wen looked up and saw that it was none other than Inspector Jones of the IAA!

The reason this guy came to see him disguised as Schlumberger is quite obvious:

Tang Wen's life in Beijing was basically a three-point line: the State Guesthouse, Zhao Hande's home, and the Navy office. Occasionally, he would be invited to dinner and someone would accompany him. Jones simply couldn't find an opportunity to meet him.

They've resorted to this desperate measure; they've probably been secretly following us for a long time!
However, Tang Wen wasn't afraid since it was his own turf. Instead, he warmly invited the other party to sit down and called out to the boss:

"Another big bowl of douzhi, and a small portion of braised pork offal with two huoshao!"

"okay!"

The owner was exceptionally enthusiastic, as old Beijingers love to see outsiders (foreigners) drinking douzhi (fermented mung bean juice), and even served Jones a thicker version of the broth.

As soon as the soy milk was served, before Jones could speak, Tang Wen quickly said:
"I have people from the National Security Bureau following me. Now that you're asking for my cooperation, you must show that you're cooperative. Drink some soy milk first!"

Jones paused for a moment, then nodded to himself. He did understand the point, but just as he was about to pick up the spoon, Tang Wen reminded him:
"This is a local specialty, it's piping hot, so you have to keep turning the bowl around while eating it!"

Jones didn't quite understand what it meant to eat while sipping, but he also found the action a bit strange, so he simply picked up the glass and drank it all in one gulp.

Tang Wen was startled by what he saw and quickly squeezed next to the ship girl against the wall to avoid being sprayed in the face.

He came to drink soy milk out of curiosity, not to get sprayed in the face.

Sure enough, Jones's expression completely lost control before he could even swallow, but his well-trained instincts kept his mouth shut and prevented him from spitting it out. However, he still couldn't help but choke on it and coughed incessantly to catch his breath.

"Damn it, this stuff tastes like diluted milk that's been soaked in my grandma's smelly socks all night!"

He cursed inwardly, but after finally calming down and forcing himself to remain composed, he smiled and said:

"The local specialty food was delicious, but I choked because I drank it too fast. Please forgive me."

Tang Wen smiled and responded, then slowly ate his fried dough sticks, showing no intention of drinking the soy milk. Not only Jones, but even the boss who had been watching was greatly disappointed.

The former finally couldn't wait any longer and, suppressing the sour smell in his throat, said:

"Schlumberger invites you to the United States to attend the World Shale Oil Technology Symposium. Please make sure you attend."

As he spoke, he emphasized a few words, clearly focusing on the trip to the United States.

Tang Wen immediately understood; they were eyeing oil technology.

Shale oil? These days, shale oil is still just a concept, but there's been a lot of research on it in China.

Shale oil, simply put, is oil extracted from rocks. Sometimes, oil that cannot form oil fields in the earth's crust will seep into rocks and eventually evolve into rock-like objects with high oil content.

This technology is generally considered to be researched only in areas with scarce oil resources. In an era when oil prices were relatively low, people scoffed at it, seeing it as a laborious and thankless task, much like trying to extract sugar from chewed sugarcane pulp.

The empire's massive investment in shale oil and its subsequent success in becoming the world's leading crude oil exporter can be attributed to both primary and secondary factors:
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The second reason is that the Empire's vast shale oil reserves are second only to Russia, and it has the potential to export these resources;
The main reason is the soaring oil price, which led investment companies to believe that oil prices would eventually cover R&D costs, and they pushed forward with rounds of technology iterations, making the extraction rate almost 30 times higher than in the early days.

At the same time, the link between oil and the US dollar is also an important driving force, which has even made the federal government not satisfied with just controlling oil-producing areas, but also want to find ways to produce oil domestically, even if it is difficult.

Shale oil didn't finally succeed for almost 20 years, and by then it seemed bleak and unprofitable.

Gaijin's oil extraction technology has already demonstrated tremendous value, making it hard for gentlemen not to be tempted.

However, Tang Wen had anticipated this, after all, the idea of ​​oil breeding heavenly soldiers was no joke.

When Jones risked being arrested to personally visit the place, a bold idea began to form in his mind:
If the mobile internet can ignite a frenzy among imperial investors with just a pie in the sky, what about oil?
If Gekkin can prove that crude oil can be extracted on a large scale in the United States, how crazy will the investment be?

Although the risks involved were akin to dancing on a knife's edge, Tang Wen glanced at his silver coin balance and the various salvaged warships that were almost filling the port, and couldn't help but admire his own restraint.

After a quick thought, he looked at Jones, deliberately feigning shock and panic, then glanced away guiltily.

"There's nothing special about the technique I'm using, so I won't embarrass myself by showing it off."

Jones, being an IAA member, naturally noticed his unusual behavior and his heart skipped a beat. He recalled that Tang Wencai's actions seemed to stem from his invitation, and immediately mentally reviewed the key words:

Schlumberger, the US, shale oil.

The first one can be ruled out. As for the second one... what risks would Tang Wen face going to the United States? Even if the IAA only wants to control him and have him do things for them, they have no intention of harming him whatsoever. Last time, he even helped them get revenge and take down the FIB!
So... shale oil? Shale oil!

Jones continued to probe:

"Tang, we greatly admire Geigin's achievements in emerging technologies. Schlumberger specially invited Geigin's company; you are the main character."

Tang Wen seemed to have recovered and asked in confusion:

"The prospects for shale oil technology are bleak, and Gaijin hasn't invested much in research on it."

Jones was not fooled and continued to press for answers:

What are your thoughts on shale oil technology?

"I have some understanding of it, but it's just scraps and there's nothing to study in depth."

"The federal government believes that shale oil will be an important means of solving the energy crisis and has decided to make it a development path,"

"That's good."

Tang Wen's answer was watertight, but Jones keenly sensed that the other party seemed quite sensitive to the words "shale oil," appearing... resistant, or perhaps concerned?

Jones eventually left, but Don Wen was certain he would return soon.

His strategy was to link shale oil technology with Gekin Petroleum, for a simple reason:
Shale oil is mainly formed in mudstone and shale formations, which cover almost the entire Earth, and theoretically, conditions for shale oil formation can be found everywhere.

However, shale oil varies in quality from place to place, and most of it has low oil content, is scattered, and has little value.

In the early days, Tang Wen thought about what to do if he really needed to explain the source of the oil one day, and finally found that "special shale oil development technology" was the most plausible explanation.

Now, using it to lure in old Americans is like a mouse seeing an oil vat—it's practically ready to dive right in!
Even if there's only the slightest possibility, Old Mi will never give up and will eventually come back to him to get to the bottom of things.

(End of this chapter)