day to day.

Another day.

Iraq's invasion of Kuwait caused great shock to the whole world. The United Nations passed several resolutions opposing Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and imposing sanctions on Iraq.

Affected by this.

The stock market continued to fall across the country.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index plummeted, European and American stock markets plummeted, the war crisis was looming, and the financial market was wailing everywhere.

The Japanese stock market was not much better. In just two months, it dropped from 33,500 points to 23,000 points. The market was gloomy.

But what’s interesting is that the Southeast Asian market has been favored by capital because it is far away from geopolitical and military areas, and the stock market is booming and continues to rise.

And the other side.

The United States officially approved the "Desert Shield" military operation plan.

It is planned to deploy troops to the Gulf region in two phases.

In the first phase, it will take three to four months to deploy 240,000 troops and their equipment so that the strength of the US military and other troop-contributing countries in the region can reach a level roughly comparable to that of the Iraqi army.

In the second phase, troops will continue to be increased depending on how the situation develops, so that the force reaches a level sufficient to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.

The first phase of deployment will first deploy rapid reaction forces and air strike forces in Jubail and Dhahran in Saudi Arabia, establish mobile defense, and adopt a "space for time" strategy to block possible Iraqi attacks and ensure the arrival and deployment of follow-up troops, based on the possibility that the Iraqi army may launch an attack on Saudi Arabia in the short term.

After the plan was finalized, the U.S. military formulated a specific deployment plan, deployed the strategic transportation tools under the Transportation Command to the maximum extent, mobilized reserve and civilian transportation forces, and at the same time, recruited and organized reserve forces.

But war is a very expensive thing.

The congressional budget requires tens of billions of dollars. The US economy has been bleak in recent years, the deficit has remained high, and the military investment is already huge.

As soon as the news was announced.

Civil society groups and major parliamentarians began to strongly oppose it.

Military operations were forced to be delayed.

As a result, production and transportation became difficult for oil-producing countries in the Middle East, and international crude oil prices continued to soar, climbing to US$37 per barrel in just two months.

10.7th.

Wednesday.

Osaka, Kyoto.

As per custom, managers of core conglomerates under the Sanwa Group, including Sanwa Bank, Nissho Iwai, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Nippon Cotton, Cosmo Oil, Kobe Steel, Sharp Corporation, Nippon Express, and Sekisui Chemical, held a meeting at the Sanshui Association.

But compared to the usual relaxed atmosphere, today's meeting had a heavy atmosphere.

Because Japan's overall strategic development in recent years has mainly been to promote the development of the manufacturing industry. It is precisely by relying on the heavy chemical industrialization route that it has firmly sat on the throne of the world's number one economic power.

The one-stop industrial chain including automobiles, petrochemicals, mining machinery, etc. has formed a closed loop of high-end technology.

But there are always two sides to a coin. The heavy industry and chemical industry routes are too dependent on oil, just like Nissho Iwai and Nichimen Shosha.

The company's core businesses are steel manufacturing, communications, liquefied gas, ceramics, rubber, etc. These industries are almost inseparable from energy demand.

But now, the Kuwait War broke out and the price of crude oil rose to $33 in just a few months.

Such a high price.

God knows how high it will rise in the future.

"If crude oil prices continue to rise, the costs will become unaffordable."

"But we don't know when the war will end. If it continues to expand and gets worse, everything will be out of control."

"There are only 20,000 barrels of crude oil left in the inventory."

"In addition, transportation in the Gulf region has been greatly affected, so we must prepare sufficient inventory."

“.”

Oil is the blood of industry. Without sufficient reserves, development will inevitably be affected.

But the Gulf region is blocked by Iraq and crude oil imports have become difficult, which are big problems that need to be solved urgently.

But before that, due to the East-West Cold War situation, no one was optimistic about the future of oil, and Maruzen had had problems twice before, so the inventory was seriously underprepared.

But who would have thought that the energy crisis would come so suddenly.

suddenly.

Someone said: "I have a friend who holds a large crude oil position. The position due for delivery this month is probably millions of barrels of oil."

What?

All the major company presidents present were shocked.

He looked in disbelief at the follower behind the Japanese president of Seibo, Ida Yoko.

Being stared at by everyone, Nagano Nao showed an innocent look.

Ida Yoko had no idea what was going on and said in disbelief, "Nagano-kun actually has such a friend?"

"Well, I met him by chance when I was on a business trip to the United States." Nagano Nao said with a simple face, using the skill of not avoiding eye contact, and loyalty overflowed from his eyes.

The president of Sekisui Chemical immediately showed excitement and said, "That's great. How is the relationship between Nagano-kun and your friend? Can you invite him to meet?"

This put Nagano Nao in a bit of a difficult position.

Because friends, it's basically something that is made up.

The reason why we found Goldman Sachs in the first place was to use Goldman Sachs' qualifications to set up a hedging account for spot and futures delivery.

After locking in the profit, part of the profit was transferred to the warehouse, and the other part was delivered in spot according to the procedure.

make money?

Seriously speaking, making money is of course faster in the futures market.

However, money is just a coordination tool and a symbol of social resource allocation.

The shadow of the oil crisis looms, resources are king, and money is of no use.

Just like now, when these guys saw me, they were shocked as if they saw their own father. That's enough to explain everything.

My heart was filled with joy.

But Nagano Nao looked embarrassed.

"That's no problem, but my friend's time is very precious. So."

Everyone here is a smart person.

I understood it instantly.

"This friend of Nagano-kun must be a very outstanding person. Please help introduce him to someone. Please." The president of Riyan, Miyamoto Jinfu, bowed deeply and handed over a blank check.

Nagano immediately returned the greeting and said very honestly: "Mr. Miyamoto, you are too polite. We are all brothers. This is Nagano's duty. Please take back the check!"

"Mr. Nagano's integrity and loyalty are truly admirable, but this matter is related to the major development of the consortium's strategy. Your friend must be a very important person. Only by treating him well can he feel our sincerity, so please be sure to accept the check, Mr. Nagano."

"Since Lord Miyamoto said so, I will accept it!"

"Thank you, Nagano-kun! I'll leave this matter to you!"

"Nagano has long since sworn to dedicate his soul to the consortium and promises to complete the mission!"

“.”

(End of this chapter)