Great warships

Chapter 1258 The Storm Came Very Fiercely
Gullfaks C Platform is Norway's largest offshore oil platform, while Troll A Platform is Norway's largest offshore natural gas platform. The height of this platform reaches an incredible 472 meters and its weight reaches 68 tons. Such a behemoth can produce 1.2 million cubic meters of natural gas every day!

In this era, oil and coal are increasingly despised by the public due to the pollution caused by combustion, but natural gas is sought after because its emissions are cleaner after combustion. I wonder how many places have replaced coal boilers with natural gas boilers. As for the extra fuel cost? For the blue sky and white clouds, for future generations, it is worth it!
The Troll A Platform natural gas platform has been the most profitable platform since its establishment. Who would have thought that an unexpected explosion would occur today!

"How did it explode?" Oryang's face looked grim.

"I don't know. The accident is under investigation. However, I don't think the cause can be found. After all..."

In a flash, everyone was blown to pieces. Even if there were still people alive, how long could they survive in the cold sea? Therefore, the cause of the accident is probably a mystery.

However, natural gas has always been very dangerous. If there is a leak or someone does not follow safety regulations, such as smoking secretly, it may still cause a fire.

Accident rescue is one aspect, and the other aspect is how they should solve the problem of huge production reduction caused by the accidents of these two most important platforms.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Oryang's phone rang. It was the president of Equinox.

"These two platforms are probably unusable. We must find new platforms as soon as possible, start construction as soon as possible, put them into production as soon as possible, and solve the energy shortage problem within three months!"

"That's impossible. It takes at least three years to negotiate a contract, place an order, and produce an offshore drilling platform."

"Isn't there anything ready-made?"

"Of course not... Wait! We have an order for eight drilling rigs in the East, we..."

Oryang reacted: "No, there is something wrong. There were problems with the two platforms today. I suspect someone is behind this! It's someone from the East, from the Mingzhou Group, I'm sure of it!"

There is a basic common sense in conspiracy theories: even if there is no evidence, as long as you look at who benefits, you can know who is behind it.

They used tricks to cripple Tianchuan Heavy Industry, leaving eight vacant drilling platforms there. When Qin Haiyang took over, an accident happened here. Need I say more? It must have been done by the Orientals, Boss Qin!
The other party also fell silent. After a minute, he finally spoke: "Then do you have any evidence?"

What evidence is there? Everything is just their guess! Can they find evidence that the people on the Sterlingda tanker were bribed by the Orientals? Or can they find evidence that the Orientals set fire to their platform?

Without evidence, there will be endless wrangling. The lawsuit will last for several years and will end up in nothing.

Can they wait for a few years? How much money will they lose? The best way at present is to immediately purchase the eight drilling platforms from Tianchuan Heavy Industry, get them back and start working as soon as possible, and make profits as soon as possible!

After hanging up the phone, Oryang sat down on the sofa and didn't move for a long time. He just felt a chill in his heart. What kind of monster had they offended?
What to do next?
Boom!
The door suddenly opened again.

"What happened again?" Oryang looked at John who appeared at the door. Could it be that another oil platform was destroyed?

"There's a video on the Internet, you... better watch it."

"What video?"

"Rescuers found the monitoring system of the Troll A Platform natural gas platform."

"Great!" Olyang's eyes lit up. This was good news! With the monitoring system, we can find out the truth of the accident!

"However, I don't know who leaked the video, and now it's circulating everywhere on the Internet."

It was leaked and circulated all over the Internet? Oryang felt something was a little strange.

"show me!"

"Hold on."

John turned on his computer and logged into ICQ. This thing had been spreading wildly on the Internet and was available in many groups. He found one and clicked on it.

The complex pipelines were covered with frost, and the dim light gave them an eerie feeling. Ordinary people would only know that they were factory equipment, but only experts knew that they were equipment from an offshore natural gas platform.

Whether it is oil or natural gas, it is impossible to transport it immediately after it is extracted. Therefore, these platforms have storage devices. Oil is easy to say, just store it in the tank, but what about natural gas?

The density of natural gas is very low, and it is difficult to store large quantities through conventional storage. The best way is to liquefy natural gas.

These equipment are used for liquefied natural gas.

The humming device is the compressor, which is responsible for compressing the liquefied gas as much as possible. The pipes with frost are condensers, which complete the liquefaction of natural gas. Then it enters the separation tower to separate the impurities and enter the storage tank. When the liquefied gas ship approaches, the liquefied natural gas can be exported and transported away.

These devices were all built by the island country, and the storage tanks used are MOSS tanks unique to the island country. The entire monitored area looks so monotonous and boring.

Suddenly, a puff of white smoke came out of the compressor, then the white smoke expanded, and the entire monitoring area was filled with white smoke!
"The compressor exploded?" said Oryang.

Just like a refrigerator, once this compressor is started, it will not stop and will keep running. It requires very high quality. The technology from the island country is reassuring. It has only been used for ten years, so it shouldn't explode!
Then the sirens started to sound.

Natural gas platforms are very dangerous. Once a leak occurs, the consequences are unpredictable, so alarms are installed in many places.

Then, a figure appeared in the monitoring area. This person was without any protection. After he came in, he retreated after a few seconds and waited for a minute. When he appeared again, he had put on a fireproof suit and carried an oxygen tank. He ran over quickly. He was obviously a serious and responsible employee. He also had a large wrench in his hand.

The compressor broke down, and the next step was to shut down for maintenance. Although everything could be done automatically, equipment would eventually break down, which required manual control.

The valve has to be closed manually!
The worker was very brave. He rushed towards the direction of the valve and then aimed the wrench at the bolt on the valve. However, when his wrench touched it, he accidentally created a spark!
The next second, the entire scene turned blood red, and the blazing flames spread out instantly, sweeping across the camera, and the picture disappeared.

Oryang was annoyed and thought the video was over. The next second, the video switched to the scene outside.

This was even more spectacular. The flames rose rapidly, leaping hundreds of meters into the sky. There were flames below and smoke above. The thick smoke rose up and formed a mushroom cloud!

“Where did this exterior scene come from?”

"A passing cargo ship."

Although there was still fog on the sea at the time, it had already faded. When the platform exploded, the flames quickly dispersed all the surrounding fog, and the vision became clear.

"Isn't this too much of a coincidence?" said Oryang.

"Yes, this video has been forwarded all over the world, and everyone will say that this is simply too coincidental, but... this thing really happened, and now we have found the reason, so we..."

"We'll settle accounts with the Japanese right now!" Oryang gritted his teeth. "Their equipment broke down within its service life. They have to pay compensation. Compensate for the equipment costs, compensation for the personnel pensions, and compensation for the losses caused by the damage to our equipment!"

“I’m afraid this is a bit difficult.”

"why?"

"In order to reduce operating costs, we refused the high-priced after-sales service from the islanders three years ago. We, Equinox, are responsible for maintenance. Even if we want to sue them, they can always blame it on poor maintenance." Soltelo was furious: "Damn it, I told them not to save the money a long time ago, but they didn't listen!"

"We have to go to court, and they must compensate us for our losses!" Oryang said.

Soltello looked at the computer screen with a complicated look: "But, I want to know more about how this video was leaked."

They did have their suspicions, thinking that the Orientals had played a role in this matter, but the oil platform was hit by a cargo ship, and the gas platform was caused by equipment explosion, and the Orientals were able to distance themselves from the matter.

But this made him even more suspicious.

Oriental, Minnesota Group.

"Boss Qin, everything is ready."

"Ah."

"That video was made by our artificial intelligence. I don't know if it will work or not. It might reveal flaws."

"It doesn't matter. As long as this video spreads, everyone will believe it. Then, no matter what the Norwegians think, they will not come to trouble us. They are just suspicious but have no evidence." Qin Tao said, "Since they dare to drink our blood, they should know what will happen."

Let them guess, but they have no idea yet and finally have to come and beg us!
"The relevant parties have already given their notice, and what will happen next is an increase in the prices of oil and natural gas," said Xu Zhengyang.

"Well, the Americans will probably envy us."

In the global village, some people are used to being village heads. They want to have their say on any matter in the villagers' homes and they want to control the energy in the villagers' homes in their own hands.

However, such overbearing behavior will always arouse resentment among the villagers. In the past, the villagers dared to be angry but not to speak out. Now, with knives in their hands, they have become tougher.

The Americans cannot control the price of oil, but Qin Tao can. As long as Qin Tao gives a word, many people will buy into his account. Moreover, if the price is higher, they will also earn more.

Norway.

People from Seadrill and Equinox gathered together, their faces gloomy.

"Is there any evidence to prove that it was done by Orientals?" asked Adkins, the head of Equinox.

"No, we can't find any evidence. Of course, we can also accuse the Orientals of crimes, but they probably won't plead guilty. They may even fight back and say that we are slandering them," said Soltelo.

"Yes, we are only guessing that their Tianchuan Heavy Industry was in dire straits because of us, so they want revenge, but we have no evidence. Moreover, if we point fingers at them, the whole world will know about it, and by then, our reputation will be even worse."

If you want to point the finger, you have to tell the whole story. By then, the whole world will know what shameful things they have done!
In the past, only people within the industry knew about it. But now the news of the natural gas platform explosion has spread widely. Once the grievances involved are made public, they will be hyped up by countless media outlets, and everyone will know about it by then.

"For us, these are secondary. The key is what to do next, whether we should cut production capacity, or..." Before Adkins finished his words, someone ran in from outside.

“Global energy prices are starting to rise!”

"Increase? Why?"

"Just now, Gou Da Hu announced that due to serious problems with our offshore platforms, Gou Da Hu decided to shut down the offshore oil and gas platforms for maintenance in the coming period. The shutdown is expected to last for a week."

The supply and demand relationship is the most basic economic relationship, and it has reached a balanced state at present. However, this announcement by Mr. Gou will cause the supply and demand relationship to be unbalanced. With less supply, prices will naturally rise.

"They don't have many offshore platforms, do they?"

The cost of mining varies in different places. The oil of the big farmers is mainly on land. Since they are all high-yield self-flowing crude oil, the cost of mining is very low. Ten dollars a barrel is high, and many oil fields can be as low as one or two dollars a barrel.

It costs about twenty dollars to mine a barrel of the Russian plateau permafrost, and it is not convenient to transport.

However, these are nothing. The cost of offshore extraction is the highest, which is often thirty or forty dollars a barrel. If the international oil price drops below forty-five dollars a barrel, it will be easy to lose money.

There is so much oil and natural gas on land, is there any need to mine it offshore? So, there is not much offshore, and it will not play a big role.

"Yeah, that's not a lot, but what if all the offshore oil and gas platforms in the world were shut down for maintenance?"

"How is it possible... Could it be?" Adkins suddenly reacted: Could it be that this was the work of the Orientals?
If this is the case, then there will be trouble. Many oil-producing countries will use this high-sounding excuse to reduce production capacity, and then the international oil price will soar!
In the past, only the United States had this kind of appeal, but they called on oil-producing countries to increase oil production and lower prices, putting the Soviet Union in a dilemma. If the oil was extracted, it would be sold at a loss, and if it was not extracted, the oil field would be ruined.

There were many reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union, and this is one of them.

After that, for a period of time, all countries followed the lead of the United States, but things have changed in recent years!
Americans don't have this ability, but Orientals do!

However, even if they knew that it was the Orientals who did it, they had no other choice. After all, the reason was very noble: for safety and for environmental protection!

The impact of this accident is too bad. The leaked oil has polluted the entire Norwegian coast! If it were somewhere else, they could just ignore it, but now, they have to find a way to deal with the oil floating on the sea, otherwise those environmentalists will come to protest.

The explosion of a natural gas platform is even more terrifying, it is simply a giant nuclear bomb! If this thing breaks down, the threat is too great. Any company that produces natural gas must do this, even if it reduces losses for a few days, to ensure safety.

Moreover, there will not necessarily be a loss, because as the output decreases, the price will go up.

"No matter who is behind this, we cannot ignore it. Even without this, we need to restore oil production capacity as soon as possible, otherwise... we will lose our customers."

Although the international prices of oil and natural gas change every day, that is only for outsiders to see. In fact, major international customers generally sign long-term agreements, which are signed for one year, or even three or five years.

Norway also has regular customers. Now that it has suddenly encountered an accident and its oil and natural gas production capacity has been greatly reduced, its long-term customers may give up importing oil from them and turn to other oil-producing countries.

Once they sign a multi-year agreement, will we still buy their oil?
"At present, the most direct way is to go to the East and buy back those previously abandoned drilling platforms. As long as we transport them here, we should be able to make it in time. If we can take the Arctic route, it is estimated that we can arrive in 20 days." Oryang said: "But..."

If it is the Orientals who are behind all this, then their purpose is probably to get us to buy those platforms. If we do this, wouldn't we be led by them by the nose?
You said you didn't want it at first, and found all kinds of faults with it, but now you want it again? What's going on?

"I have an idea." At this time, Soltello spoke: "I heard that after Mr. Qin's son took over Tianchuan Heavy Industry, he offered a huge reward. Whoever can sell the drilling platform can become the general manager, so we..."

Everyone's eyes lit up. That's right! We might as well take advantage of their trick!
Dongfang, Tianchuan Heavy Industry.

Qin Haiyang sat in a swivel chair, looking at the news displayed on the computer screen in front of him, his face looking a little ugly.

"Really? You still don't believe me." Qin Haiyang said, "I am obviously capable of doing this, why do you have to help me? Humph, I don't want your help. The little eagle can only grow into a strong eagle if it leaves its parents!"

dong dong!

At this moment, there was a knock on the door outside.

"Come in."

"Boss Qin, boss Qin, good news!" Xia Yu ran in excitedly: "I have found buyers, and they are willing to buy our eight offshore drilling platforms!"

"Really?" Qin Haiyang was also delighted: "Who is the buyer?"

"Norwegian Offshore Exploration Company! I've researched and found that these drilling platforms were built specifically for Norway, so we still have to sell them to them! I searched the Internet carefully and sent countless emails, and finally got a response. I'll report to you first. As long as you nod, I'll send them over immediately. By the way, Mr. Qin, is your promise still valid?"

(End of this chapter)