Shaking his head, Yang Jing threw away all the thoughts that arose because of Guo Dabao's words.
This kind of national-level energy strategic plan is not something he can get involved in. Perhaps after taking over the Dragon Fund in the future, he can intervene in this level of game and rely on the huge economic strength of the Dragon Consortium and its shares in major mining companies to become the best middleman between China and those energy exporting countries.
But that still requires time. What I should do most now is not to think about those high-level things, but to continue to be an "oil finder" honestly.
On the way from the airport to the city of Baku, you can see old closed oil wells everywhere on both sides of the road, and of course, there are also low-rise houses.
As the capital of Azerbaijan, the Baku metropolitan area consists of ten administrative districts and forty-six towns, which are distributed over more than 2,000 square kilometers of land, making this area look particularly messy.
That’s right, Baku’s urban planning is not very good. Most of these towns were developed relying on the oil fields in the past. Now, although Baku’s oil fields no longer produce oil, the entire city has successfully transformed, but the overall planning of this city is really messy.
The city center is better, with tall buildings everywhere, but in the larger towns in the suburbs, it is rare to see buildings higher than five stories, most of them are two-story or three-story houses. If you only look at these towns, it is really hard to associate the capital of a country with this place.
"It looks messy here, doesn't it?" Guo Dabao asked with a smile.
Yang Jing nodded. He had visited many foreign capitals over the years. Although there were some shabby capitals like Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, although they were shabby, the urban planning was not so messy.
Baku can be said to be the capital with the most messy urban planning that Yang Jing has ever seen.
"Haha, there's nothing we can do. Baku has a long history, dating back to the third century BC. In the 18th century, it became the capital of the Baku Khanate. In 1806, it was incorporated into Russia. In 1920, it became the capital of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. But before the 20th century, this city was a very backward city. There wasn't even a single tree in the city. But after the world's first real oil well was successfully drilled here in 1946, the city entered a stage of rapid development."
"I have been here for a few days. The day before yesterday, I went to the city museum and saw a lot of old photos taken a long time ago. In those old photos, this large area was full of derricks. Especially after 1870, when the Russian government abolished the state monopoly, private enterprises developed explosively. At that time, there were more than 20 small refineries near Baku alone!"
Yang Jing nodded with a smile and said, "Uncle Guo, I know this. British Prime Minister Churchill once said that if oil is the queen, then Baku is her throne. In the early 20th century, the Baku oil field became the world's highest-producing oil field, and became the industrial center of the South Caucasus and the Russian oil base. Since then, Baku has been famous as the 'Oil City'."
"That's right!" Guo Dabao nodded. "In that era, the Russian Empire was one of the largest oil producers in the world. At that time, the Russian Empire's oil production accounted for one-third of the world's share. Here, the Rothschild family and the Nobel brothers once competed for business hegemony. But with the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War and the nationalization of oil companies, the Soviet Union's oil industry suffered a serious blow. However, foreign capital did not withdraw from the Soviet market. The Rothschild family and the Nobel brothers were replaced by Standard Oil and Vacuum Oil Company in New York, which later became Mobil Oil. In 1923, the development of the Soviet Union's oil industry returned to normal, and oil exports returned to pre-revolutionary levels. The Caucasus and the Caspian Sea regions are still the most important oil producing areas in the Soviet Union. Therefore, Hitler had long coveted the Baku oil fields and even launched the Barbarossa Plan against the Soviet Union."
Yang Jing smiled and said, "Yes, fortunately Hitler did not capture Stalingrad at that time. Otherwise, if the German army captured Stalingrad, the Baku oil fields would have completely fallen into Hitler's hands. It would be hard to say what the final outcome of World War II would have been at that time."
"Yes, when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, the Baku oil field was at its peak. In 1940, the output of the Baku oil field accounted for 71.5% of the Soviet Union's oil production at the time! If Hitler really took over the Baku oil field, first the Soviet tank cluster would be destroyed, and then Hitler, who had obtained the oil resources of the Baku oil field, would turn around and strike hard at the Allies from the Western Front. Perhaps the outcome of World War II would be really different." Guo Dabao said with a smile.
"Until 1950, this was still the largest oil field in the Soviet Union, with oil production accounting for 39.2% of the total Soviet output. However, starting from the 1950s, due to the decline in reserves, the crude oil production of the Baku Oilfield declined after a cumulative production of 1.2 billion tons, and the production situation took a sharp turn for the worse. In addition, the Soviet government increased its production efforts in the Volga and Ural regions, resulting in the Baku Oilfield's crude oil production falling to 15% of the total Soviet output in 1955. In the 1960s, as the Soviet Union started oil production in the vast areas of Western Siberia, a large number of people migrated to this densely populated area. The increase in Soviet oil exports led to a drop in world oil prices, which was one of the reasons for the establishment of OPEC in 1960."
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