However, it was precisely because of diamonds that Yang Jing was reminded of a mineral that had been previously overlooked, which is oil.
Oil is similar to the natural treasure contained in coal and base metals, both of which are extremely rare. But what if the amount of oil is large?
As the saying goes, grains of sand form a tower, water gathers to form an ocean, and trees gather to form a forest. These idioms developed by our Chinese ancestors were not said in vain; they all contain profound truths.
Yes, the natural treasure contained in oil is very small, but what if the amount of oil is large enough? Ten liters is not enough, let's get 100,000 barrels. 100,000 barrels is not enough, let's get 1 million barrels or even 10 million barrels!
As long as there is enough oil, there is no need to worry about natural treasures!
Similarly, if there is more coal and base metals, enough natural treasures can also be gathered.
In order to gather so many minerals, you must at least own one or more mines, otherwise you will not be able to absorb enough natural treasures.
But whether it is coal or base metal mines, they are not something that they can get at present, let alone more valuable precious metal mines or diamond mines.
The only possible mines are oil wells! To be more precise, they are old oil wells that can no longer produce crude oil!
The idea that suddenly came to Yang Jing's mind because of diamonds was one of the main purposes of his trip to the United States this time.
Oilfield mining is different from other mineral mining. On this planet, other minerals are mined almost as much as they can be, and it is impossible to leave any minerals behind. But oil mining is different.
Oil was discovered by humans a long time ago, but it was not widely used for a long time.
However, with the emergence of the internal combustion engine at the end of the 19th century, the importance of oil immediately became apparent. Until now, oil has become the second largest natural energy source on the planet after coal.
The oil reserves on the earth are still very considerable, but because of its physical properties, oil mining is not the same as other mineral mining. For other mineral mining, the mine owners want to dig all the minerals, but it is not the same for oil. Every oil owner wants to extract all the oil in the oil field, but that is obviously impossible. At least at this stage, it seems that no one on this planet can do this.
Humans have been extracting oil for more than a hundred years, but no matter how much human science and technology develop, there is still something they are helpless about when it comes to oil extraction.
Because of the oil resources contained in an oil field, only 35% at most can be extracted, which is still a large amount. The recoverable amount of most oil fields is only about 30%.
That is to say, from an oil field with a reserve of up to 10 billion barrels, at most only 3.5 billion barrels of crude oil can be extracted. The remaining 6.5 billion barrels of crude oil can only continue to sleep under the dark rock strata. At least in the next few decades or even hundreds of years, humans will not be able to extract the overly viscous oil.
As a result, these old oil wells with a large amount of heavy oil remaining have become chicken ribs in the eyes of those big oil companies - tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away.
The development of an onshore oil well usually costs about one to two million dollars. When a well with a million dollars invested reaches the final heavy oil stage, very little oil can be produced. If it continues to be mined, it will have to bear huge manpower, electricity and maintenance costs. For those large oil companies, it is very inappropriate to mine crude oil in such old oil wells.
But it is obviously not appropriate to abandon an oil well that has invested millions of dollars, so over time, a new business has emerged, that is, the auction of old oil wells. That is, the old oil wells that originally belonged to large oil companies are auctioned to individuals for operation and exploitation.
These old oil wells are useless to large companies, but they are still attractive to some private bosses. Private mining of such old oil wells is low-cost and profitable as long as a certain amount of crude oil can be mined.
Especially if you are lucky enough to discover new oil and gas layers from the old oil wells you photographed, it means you have made a fortune.
This kind of thing has happened before. In the United States, where old oil well auctions are most prosperous, a miraculous thing once happened.
It was at an auction of old oil wells at the beginning of the new century that a Californian named Scott Lee bought fourteen old oil wells from a small discontinued oil field in Mississippi for a total price of US$34,000. This 229-acre old oil field was discovered in 1952. After more than 20 years of exploitation, it ceased production in 1974, producing a total of 4.09 million barrels of oil.
The fourteen old oil wells in this oil field were eventually shut down due to high water production. After Scott Lee took pictures of these fourteen old oil wells, he immediately invested millions of dollars to re-survey these old oil wells. It took more than half a year to discover that there were still seven layers of oil and gas layers in this old oil field that had not been exploited!
Although these seven oil and gas layers are very thin, it has been calculated that the geological reserves of unexploited oil and gas layers are as high as more than 24 million barrels, and the recoverable reserves can reach 7.2 million barrels, which is more than 3 million barrels more than the total production of 4.09 million barrels of the oil field in the past 22 years!
According to analysis by experienced operators in the United States, Scott Lee's return on this small oil field is as high as 73.36 times, that is, without taking into account the funds Scott Lee invested in auctioning old oil wells, when Scott Lee redeveloped this old oil field, he could make a profit of 73.36 US dollars for every US dollar invested! The payback period for the entire investment is only 9-11 months. As for the cost of each barrel of crude oil, it is only 3 US dollars.
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