When Zheng Fuguang arrived in Liusha County, Zhu Jingyuan received Liu Zhixin's report.
These include what Zheng Fuguang mentioned, operating oil exploration, smelting and sales business in the name of Daming Aviation Fuel Company.
This suggestion was made by Wang Zhenyi, the shopkeeper of the Ming Dynasty Royal Flying Machine Company.
Zhu Jingyuan was very confused by this suggestion.
As the shopkeeper of a company affiliated to the royal family consortium, Wang Zhenyi took the initiative to remind Zhu Jingyuan's company of this loophole plan.
This is not like Wang Zhenyi's personal behavior.
So Zhu Jingyuan immediately sent a telegram asking his father and mother.
Zhu Jianyan's reply came quickly:
"This is what your grandfather meant."
The telegram that came back only contained this sentence, and Zhu Jianyan did not give any explanation to the west.
Zhu Jingyuan looked at this sentence, frowned and considered it for a long time, and then slowly tasted some possibilities from it.
The oil industry has great prospects. It would have been impossible for one company to operate it, and it would gradually be split up within the royal consortium.
As the grandson of the emperor and the future prince, the nature of his property is not much different from that of the royal consortium.
And then, there is the final possibility...
When your own industry expands and you want to steadily absorb it into the royal consortium, there is only one natural way.
The same logic applies to the food country that seems to be getting bigger and bigger.
Is this a guarantee of status for myself?
But it's also a bomb...
Zhu Jingyuan was speechless at the old emperor's arrangement.
Drilling an oil well and handing it over directly to the royal consortium for management, how easy would it be for my big food country to just lie down and count the money?
Why stand when you can make money lying down?
Do you have to let me stand?
If you want to make money standing up, you can use the extremely low local oil prices to attract petroleum refining-related industries to settle in.
Holding an automobile and aviation industry expo?
It was originally a land of two oceans, three continents and five seas. After the opening of the West Sea Canal, it became an absolute transportation artery.
It is inherently suitable for wide-area tourism and cultural industries.
Actively cultivate racing culture and aviation culture to attract people to settle in.
On this basis, we can also try to develop the automobile manufacturing and aviation industries locally.
But this is all in the future. What needs to be done now is to drill out the oil wells.
At the same time, large-scale oil storage tanks will be built in advance, enough standard oil tanks and barrels will be purchased, and existing crude docks will be upgraded.
Others had no idea how outrageous oil production would be in the Persian Gulf and how fast it would soar.
Zhu Jingyuan once again sent messages to his mother and chief shopkeeper Liang Yunying, the person in charge of exploration in the Dashi area Zheng Fuguang, and the stayer at the Dashi Palace Xu Minghui.
Hurry up to build a large-scale construction, hurry up to buy, buy, buy, and get a loan in front of you. All current investments can be earned back by selling oil once.
Communicate with the Royal Refinery in advance. The early fuel will definitely be sold to them.
The big food country can handle the oil refining industry on its own, at least after the peace talks are over.
…………
Zheng Fuguang took a few workers who had drilled oil wells and briefly explored outside Liusha County for three days before starting drilling directly.
The theory of oil exploration at this time was completely unsystematic, and even skilled craftsmen did not have very clear methods.
Either find a place where there is oil and gas leakage directly on the surface and drill a well directly.
Either refer to the topography and environment of the existing oil fields and try to find other wells with similar environments.
Most of the time it comes from feeling.
Now that the big food king has decided on a place outside Liusha County, he will first find a suitable place to start construction here.
Including Zheng Fuguang and several veteran craftsmen, they did not have high hopes for the first drilling.
In the past, Ming Dynasty's oil wells were mainly located in the Nanyang region, where there are humid and hot islands with dense tropical rainforests everywhere.
Now that we are suddenly drilling in a place full of sand, our previous experience has little reference value.
With such an uneasy mood, everyone drilled down step by step.
Xu Minghui, the trial chief of the Dashi Kingdom, came to the construction site every now and then to check on it. Anyway, the construction site was not far outside the city, and he usually had nothing to do.
Pour the water from the barrels that came with the ship into the reservoir, build large oil tanks according to Zhu Jingyuan's requirements, and order more oil tanks and barrels.
All that's left is to wait for oil to come out here.
In such a complex atmosphere of doubt, anxiety and expectation, the drilling depth is deepening day by day.
Zhu Jingyuan asked to drill to 1,500 meters, and even asked to drill to 2,000 meters.
But most people think that if there is oil, it shouldn't be that deep before it comes out.
Twenty days later, the drilling depth reached 1,000 meters and still no oil was seen.
The workers' expectations, which were originally low, have been infinitely close to zero.
Xu Minghui also became more uneasy.
Eight days later, the drilling depth reached 1,300 meters, and still no oil was seen at all.
Craftsmen have basically given up.
Hu Biao, an old worker who drilled oil wells in Borneo, has been muttering to himself from time to time these days:
"If there was oil here, it would have come out long ago..."
Zheng Fuguang saw this emotion in his eyes, and he actually had no expectations in his heart. He could only issue an order based on Zhu Jingyuan's request:
“For the money paid by His Highness and the big shopkeeper, we will do it according to His Highness’s request.
“First drill for 1,500 meters, and then try for 2,000 meters, and then drill to the depth required by His Highness.
"If nothing can be found, just report to His Highness when the time comes."
What Zheng Fuguang said is reality. Anyway, the money is provided by the boss, so you just have to work according to the requirements.
The workers had nothing to say but lamented that His Highness wasted money...
Xu Minghui also had mixed emotions. In the past few days, he began to sit in the accounting room of the palace again and carefully calculate the cost of this drilling.
The mechanical equipment and personnel wages are paid for by Daming Airlines, and there is no cost from Dashiguo. However, accommodation and meals must be provided by Dashiguo.
In fact, the craftsmen don't know, and Zhu Jingyuan himself doesn't know. It's actually a good thing that they can't drill for oil now.
Liusha County is located on an oil field. The large-scale oil reservoir in this oil field is at a depth of about 1,500 meters.
If oil comes out early, it may be that scattered small oil reservoirs scattered above the oil layer have been drilled.
As a result, the daily output is either low or gone within a few days.
But now that oil has come out, it may cause the craftsmen to stop drilling, and then think that there is just a little oil here.
Historically, Standard Oil Company of California drilled seven consecutive wells here.
The first few wells were either such sporadic oil reservoirs, turned into water wells, or had nothing at all.
Until the seventh well was drilled to 1,370 meters, nothing was seen.
The drilling crew was almost financially depleted as Standard Oil of California prepared to abandon drilling in Saudi Arabia.
It was not until the Texas Petroleum Company became a shareholder that drilling could continue.
As a result, when the seventh well was drilled to more than 1,440 meters, the drill bit directly penetrated the large oil layer.
A large amount of crude oil spurts out, like an artificial high-pressure fountain.
It is a natural high-pressure blowout well.
On that day, 250,000 liters of crude oil gushed out, and the daily output thereafter reached 580,000 liters, which is approximately more than 600 tons.
Then they went back and continued to deepen the previous oil wells to similar depths. As a result, those oil wells all turned into high-pressure blowout wells.
The oil development in the Persian Gulf region began, and Well No. 7 ushered in an era.
Therefore, Zheng Fuguang, Xu Minghui, and all the workers continued to suffer for five days before they were shocked by the surging crude oil.
The oil layer has never been exploited before. The underground pressure is released for the first time, and surging oil columns rise into the sky.
Several craftsmen were directly knocked to the ground by the splashing crude oil, and then their bodies were covered with crude oil falling from the sky.
On June 20, the thirty-fourth year of the Ming Dynasty, the first oil well in Dashiduo officially produced oil.
Xu Minghui, who came to inspect the construction site again, looked at the crude oil fountain in front of him while riding a horse, and immediately widened his eyes and exclaimed loudly:
"Oh my God..."
The drilling site also erupted in unusually warm cheers.
Several old workers were shocked:
"This is fucking awesome!"
"Labour and management have never seen crude oil spraying like this in their lives..."
"This damn well is called a self-effluent well!"
There are also natural spouting wells in other areas, but they are far less common than in the Persian Gulf, and their intensity is not as violent as in the Persian Gulf.
Ordinary workers who had never seen such a thing were completely dumbfounded.
A large group of people just watched where the crude oil was spraying.
Xu Minghui, who was still worried about money the most, was the first to react. He drove his horse towards this side with all his strength and shouted loudly:
"Don't be stunned! Hurry up and fill up! This is all money!"
Zheng Fuguang also reacted:
"The drillers go cement the well! Others go load the oil!"
Xu Minghui ran to the construction site on horseback, jumped off the horse, rolled and crawled to Zheng Fuguang, grabbed his arm and asked extremely nervously:
"Gong Zheng, tell me, how much can the crude oil from this well be sold for?"
Zheng Fuguang was used to Xu Minghui's money-seeking feeling. He turned to look at the gushing oil column and made an estimate:
“According to Shopkeeper Wang, the crude oil transferred by the Royal Oil Production Company to the refining company last year was calculated based on three yuan per stone.
“Now the number of internal combustion engine vehicles and ships is increasing, the price of fuel is continuing to rise, and the price of crude oil will continue to rise.
"If this well continues to erupt at this rate, it will probably erupt two thousand stones, or two hundred thousand liters, in a whole day..."
After the Renwu Dynasty, among the metric units of the Ming Dynasty, sheng, dou, and stone were all clearly defined as capacity units.
The volume of a square container of one decimeter in length, width and height is determined to be one liter.
Ten liters is equivalent to one bucket, ten liters is equivalent to one stone, and one stone is equivalent to one hundred liters.
After hearing Zheng Fuguang's explanation, Xu Minghui's eyes widened again:
"One stone and three silver dollars? Two thousand stones is six thousand dollars? Six thousand silver dollars a day! One hundred and eighty thousand silver dollars a month! Two million a year!
"Oh my God! Our big food country is now prosperous!"
At this time, the purchasing power of Ming Dynasty silver dollars and banknotes was almost equivalent to one hundred yuan in later generations.
Six thousand silver notes is equivalent to 600,000, and two million silver notes is equivalent to 200 million, which is equivalent to the salary of twenty princes of the Ming Dynasty.
This was only the first oil well drilled by Zheng Fuguang.
Zheng Fuguang didn't think much of it at first, but he was shocked by the data Xu Minghui casually calculated:
"This...the current price of oil is indeed like this, and the spouting speed of the oil well in front of us is indeed...ridiculous...
"And... this is just the first well. According to Manager Wang's introduction, an oil field can usually drill several wells, or even dozens of wells..."
"Dozens of bites——"
Xu Minghui screamed and took a deep breath. He almost lost his breath and coughed hard:
"Ahem——"
Seeing this, Zheng Fuguang quickly supported Xu Minghui, patted him on the back and continued to explain and comfort him:
"Don't be so excited about the trial... That's just the sales price, we didn't include the mining and transportation costs.
"There is no market for our big food. We have to transport it to mainland China. These ships and oil barrels are money...
"And this well can't keep erupting like this, the speed will slowly decrease..."
Xu Minghui also reacted, but he was still very excited and kept mumbling:
"Yes, yes, you have to calculate the cost, the cost, I have to be able to calculate it carefully, calculate it...calculate it..."
Xu Minghui rested for a long time and finally recovered his energy.
After looking at the gushing oil column for a long time, he reluctantly left the construction site and rode back to the city.
After returning to the palace, Xu Minghui had the oil tanks and barrels quickly sent to the construction site, and he ran into the accounting room and began to calculate costs and benefits.
The craftsmen and workers continued to work on the construction site, and by evening the well was basically stabilized.
After the derrick oil conductive pipe was installed, the crude oil began to flow under the constraints of the pipeline and was successively loaded into a large number of oil tanks and barrels.
Zheng Fuguang watched the oil well blowout at the construction site all day long, feeling that its intensity showed no sign of weakening.
When the afternoon came the next day, Zheng Fuguang counted the entire day's output.
Although he had expected it, Zheng Fuguang was still shocked by the result.
The output per day is not two thousand stones at all, but five thousand stones!
Calculated in this way, the theoretical income for one day may reach 15,000 yuan in silver notes, and at least 5 million banknotes for a whole year.
Converted into RMB in future generations based on purchasing power, that would be 500 million.
Zheng Fuguang swallowed several mouthfuls of saliva, carefully calculated the data three times, and sent someone to report to Xu Minghui in the city.
Let Xu Minghui continue to build large oil storage tanks and order more standard oil barrels.
Zhu Jingyuan repeatedly reminded us to prepare oil cans and barrels. A few days ago, Zheng Fuguang felt that Zhu Jingyuan's expectations were too high.
I am also worried that Zhu Jingyuan will be disappointed later.
As a result, it now seems that His Highness the Prince was the one who had the foresight.
My own layout is still small.
Xu Minghui couldn't sleep much last night. He had been planning how to sell oil and how to make money for Big Food Country.
After receiving Zheng Fuguang's new report, Xu Minghui almost pulled over again.
After regaining his composure again, Xu Minghui immediately asked Dianbo to write a formal report to report the good news to Zhu Jingyuan and Liu Zhixin in Xiyang Cape.
…………
More than twenty days ago, Luo Yashan's family left Liusha County in Dashi Country.
After the passenger ship left the Persian Gulf, it sailed southwest along the Dashi Peninsula and the east coast of Mozhou.
We stopped at two piers along the way. Sofia, Peter and other children could not help but sigh with emotion every time they went:
"This place is better than the big food country..."
"The food country is really too poor."
After half a month of sailing, the ship finally arrived at the Western Cape.
The children came to the bow of the ship again, and as the passenger ship slowly sailed toward the pier, they looked at the city in front and cheered one after another:
“This is the Cape of Good Hope!”
"The city here is so beautiful. Are cities in the East like this?"
“The port and pier are so lively!”
"This port is busier than all the ports in Lucia!"
"No, it's more lively than all the cities in Lucia."
"A thousand times more prosperous than the Great Food Country!"
Luo Yashan and Zhao Xinlian, the couple, were also quite fascinated as they watched the city getting closer and closer.
The Western Cape is the Cape of Good Hope in Western Europe, the most important port city that the Ming Dynasty captured from the Dutch.
Sofia still remembered what happened in the Big Food Country, and she couldn't help but ask her parents:
"Since Prince Dashi is the Ming Emperor's favorite grandson, why should he be given such a barren fief?"
Zhao Xinlian smiled and explained:
“The title of Prince of Dashi is the only dual-prince title in the Ming Dynasty.
“So since he is a native royal prince of the Ming Dynasty, he can get the normal salary of a Ming Dynasty prince.
“He is the king of the Great Food Country again and can get a share of the tax revenue from the Great Food Country.
“Although Dashi Country is barren, for Prince Dashi, it is completely extra income, so it doesn’t matter how much.
"The other princes of Ming Dynasty don't have it yet.
"So stop complaining about the poverty in the Big Food Country, and forget about Liusha County in the Big Food Country.
"Neither Prince Dashi nor your future life need to depend on it."
Sophia nodded her little head gently:
"You really don't need it there..."
