Chapter 903: There is Oil but No Refinery
Lin Sanqi looked at his watch. It was almost 11 o'clock in the evening. In the 1960s when there was no nightlife, it should have been time for late sleep.
"Commander, why don't we talk about it tomorrow? Calling someone now would disturb their sleep. What if Minister Zheng is having... that... with his wife? Wouldn't that be a sin?"
Commander Cao snorted, "He's already over sixty years old, good-looking but useless. Why is he still paying taxes? Let Old Zheng come over."
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, cadres from all walks of life came from the Red Army, so the military and civil systems were connected, and everyone was an old friend.
There are many cadres like Lin Sanqi who hold both military and political positions, and it is not uncommon.
Leader Jing dialed the number and it took a while before the call was connected:
"Hey, Lao Zheng, did I disturb your sleep? What? You can't sleep? Okay, okay, come to my place now. Comrade Lin Sanqi from Bao'an County is here with me. Yes, okay..."
Leader Jing put down the phone and said with a smile, "I'm here."
Half an hour later, the door to Leader Jing's office was pushed open, and an old man with gray hair and wearing a military coat ran in quickly:
"Hiss, ha, it's so cold! This heavy snow is a blessing! Auspicious snow means a good harvest. I'm sure we'll have a good harvest next year."
As soon as Minister Zheng entered the room, he looked around and saw Lin Sanqi and extended his hand from a distance:
"Lin Caishen, ah, today I finally caught you, this big fish, haha."
Lin Sanqi was shaken by his hand and joked:
"Minister Zheng, you should at least pretend a little. You're calling me the God of Wealth so blatantly. I feel guilty.
Let me be clear, any gain comes at a price. After all, I'm a fake God of Wealth, not the real one, and I don't have mountains of gold and silver at home. So, before you get to the table, prepare your chips first."
Minister Zheng was stunned. As a veteran cadre, he wouldn't blush easily. He just smiled innocently.
"That's right, as long as Comrade Sanqi is willing to help us, we can pay the right amount. There's absolutely no problem with that."
Lin Sanqi heaved a sigh of relief. Since both parties were not familiar with each other yet, it would be better to set the tone during the first meeting. He could help with the "smuggling", but he would definitely not do it for free.
Otherwise, when you get to know each other better after a long time, you will feel embarrassed to bargain.
He traveled through this era to monetize traffic and do some moving work within his ability, but if he was asked to burn himself and devote everything, he couldn't do it.
Who told him to be a kid from a village in the city? That's just his mentality.
After both parties sat down again, Minister Zheng took a big gulp of wine, then his eyes lit up and he poured himself another glass, obviously tasting the flavor.
Commander Cao said impatiently:
"Alright, alright, Lao Zheng, are you here for a drink or a business talk? You owe us so much gas, I'll smash your Petroleum Ministry sign."
Minister Zheng was not afraid of being threatened. Instead, he grabbed a plate of peanuts and started eating.
"Hey, I was originally so worried I couldn't sleep. My superiors ordered me to reach 2 million tons of refined oil production next year. But now, with Comrade Lin Sanqi's help, I have every confidence I can achieve it."
Lin Sanqi thought to himself that he did not want to take on such a big responsibility. He was the deputy minister of the Ministry of Health, not the deputy minister of the Ministry of Petroleum.
"Minister Zheng, if you want me to help you, you have to tell me the current status of domestic oil refining."
Minister Zheng put down his glass and said bluntly:
"Comrade Sanqi, let's be honest, we are not short of oil at the moment.
For example, the Baiyanghe, Shiyougou, Yaerxia, Karamay, and Yumen oil fields in the northwest region, the Nanchong, Penglai, and Guihua oil fields in Sichuan, and the Fuyu oil field in Jilin.
In addition, we discovered the Daqing oil field in the terrestrial deposits in the Songliao area. The oil from these fields combined is sufficient for our domestic use. What we lack now is refining equipment.
How to turn oil into finished products such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, heavy oil, etc., is the core of the problem."
Lin Sanqi understood that this problem was just like the problems faced by the major oil-producing countries in the Middle East decades later.
I don’t know if you have noticed a phenomenon, that is, when these countries export oil, they basically sell crude oil, not finished gasoline.
Originally, the price of finished gasoline is much higher than that of crude oil. Since they are so rich, why don’t they spend their own money to build refineries, refine crude oil into gasoline, and then export it?
Wouldn't it be more profitable to do so? Why do so few countries here do this?
The reason is that the petrochemical industry has very strict technical requirements. Only advanced industrial countries have the technology to refine oil, and it also requires a lot of supporting electricity and transportation.
There are only a few hundred oil refineries in the world combined, of which China, the United States and Russia account for more than half, and the rest are in India, Japan, South Korea and other countries.
This is actually the dilemma we are facing in China now. Crude oil processing is an industry with very high technological content. Without the technical support from the Soviet Union, we cannot do it in China for the time being.
Lin Sanqi threw a handful of peanuts into his mouth and then said:
"The difficulties you mentioned have just been discussed with me by several leaders. However, I have a question and concern: if I can acquire the refinery, do we have the professional technicians to operate the entire production line?
After all, I'm a medical student, so I don't know much about oil refining. Furthermore, my impression of refineries is that they're huge, and with all the lights on at night, they look like a city that never sleeps."
What came to Lin Sanqi's mind was the spectacular scene when he passed by the Zhanjiang Petrochemical Plant when he was traveling there.
With that scale, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a small city.
Minister Zheng was a military man and liked to ask direct questions, so he explained:
“The largest refinery in the country right now is Blue State Petrochemical.
In 1959, we invested 180 million RMB.
The entire infrastructure covers an area of 400,000 square meters, installed equipment weighing 13,000 tons, laid 860 kilometers of auxiliary pipelines, and completed 2 million cubic meters of earthwork, which is unprecedented in scale.
So, Comrade Sanqi, we have experience and are determined to develop the petrochemical industry. Even if we don't have the money, we will tighten our belts and develop the oil industry. Don't worry about us not being worth much."
Lin Sanqi calculated in his mind again, 180 million RMB, with the current exchange rate of 1:2.4, is equivalent to 75 million US dollars.
However, the annual output is only a pitiful 400,000 tons.
If Lin Sanqi hadn't traveled through time, the foreign exchange reserves of the entire national treasury would not be enough to build an oil refinery. They were really poor.
Minister Zheng continued to look at Lin Sanqi seriously and said:
"As for the engineers and skilled workers in oil refining, Comrade Sanqi, you don't have to worry about them either. When the Russians came to support us, we had already arranged for a large number of skilled workers to follow us and learn from them.
Although the Russian experts suddenly withdrew later, and we still have only a partial understanding of many principles, there is no problem in practical operation. At most, we can just explore for a while. Our comrades are least afraid of hardship.
Of course, it is best to have a complete instruction manual and technical template, hehe."
Lin Sanqi slapped his thigh, feeling safe:
"That's great! As long as there are workers and engineers who know how to operate the production line, I'll be relieved. Otherwise, I'll just be groping in the dark. Talent is always the most valuable."
When the people in the room heard this, they sobered up instantly and looked at Lin Sanqi with burning eyes.
Minister Zheng asked excitedly:
"Comrade Sanqi, you, you mean to say you really have a way to get an oil refinery? How big is it? What's the approximate annual output?"
Lin Sanqi was at a loss for words. After all, in another time and space, the production capacity of large and medium-sized oil refineries was often calculated in tens of millions of tons.
For example, the Zhenhai Refinery in Zhejiang Province has a crude oil processing capacity of more than 58 million tons/year and owns 42 refining units and 18 petrochemical units.
Such a giant refinery can immediately solve the country's gasoline and diesel supply difficulties, and even have enough capacity to export and earn foreign exchange.
Moreover, developing the oil industry has another great benefit, which is to develop the oil industry chain, solve employment problems and urgently needed materials in the country.
For example, the upstream link involves the exploration, mining and preliminary processing of oil and natural gas, including drilling, oil production, oil and gas field development, etc., which requires a large amount of labor.
The midstream segment covers crude oil processing and refining, producing finished oil products such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, as well as basic chemical raw materials such as ethylene and propylene, which in turn requires a large number of skilled workers.
The most important downstream links, such as the production of plastics, synthetic rubber, fertilizers, medicines, etc., are widely used in daily life and industrial fields.
Especially the fertilizer, isn’t it the material that the current agricultural society in our country urgently needs?
Only when the output of fertilizers increases can the harvest from the fields increase, which will enable everyone to have enough food to eat and meet their basic survival needs.
Thinking of this, Lin Sanqi has made up his mind to go to another time and space to build a complete oil refinery. If he can't get a new one, a second-hand one will do.
(End of this chapter)
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