Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1368 Blockade (Second update, please subscribe)

Where does the butterfly flap its wings?

In fact, butterflies flap their wings every day. No one knows how long the butterfly will stop flapping, but one thing is certain: the butterfly's wings are always flapping.

Although Natalia and Zhou Bicheng had a very happy chat on the plane, they still had to say goodbye to each other at the airport because Natalia was going to study at Yong'an University.

One is in the north of the island and the other is in the south, thousands of kilometers apart.

Sometimes, this distance can also separate the so-called fate. A few hours later, Natalia took a connecting flight to Yongan. When Natalia, an international student, entered Yongan University, the blonde immediately attracted the attention of many people.

Although there are many Europeans on the streets of NBC, and in some places the population is almost evenly divided between Europeans and Asians, quite a number of them do not conform to East Asian aesthetics. But Natalia is different. Although she has blonde hair, her delicate appearance perfectly conforms to the aesthetic standards of the East and the West, and her slim figure is very eye-catching.

That is why, when someone saw her standing on the campus in a daze, someone quickly walked over.

"Hello, ma'am, how can I help you?"

Looking at the male classmate in front of her, Natalia said:
"Ah, I just got here. How do I get to the registration office?"

Everything happens naturally.

Beautiful women will always receive special attention. As soon as she entered the campus, she fully felt the enthusiasm of the alumni. After all, in Russia where there are more boys than girls, even beautiful women find it difficult to enjoy such treatment.

While Natalia was enjoying the special care, on the other side of the island, several Soviet students entered Taiping University. Unlike the beauties, these burly men naturally did not receive any preferential treatment. They just looked at everything here curiously, but besides curiosity, they were more emotional.

“I never thought we would need to learn oil technology here!”

Standing on the campus of Taiping University, Nikolayev looked at the campus with some emotion. As we all know, the Soviet Union's oil industry is very developed, but even so, they still came here.

As soon as he finished speaking, Abrabuyev on the side agreed:

"Yes, our oil technology is still very advanced. We have the largest oil field in Europe."

"That's just in some aspects. Our technology in oil pipeline transportation and extraction is still behind the Western world."

"Yes, NBC's oil technology is very advanced. They have introduced a lot of oil technology from the United States, such as deep well technology. A few years ago in Libya, many European companies did not discover local oil because the drilling depth was not enough. However, relying on the drilling technology introduced from the United States, they successfully discovered the Libyan oil field and now export tens of millions of tons to Europe every year!"

In addition to explaining, Anton also emphasized:

"It even affected our oil exports, so we had to lower prices even further."

Contrary to what many people imagine, as a world's second largest industrial power, the Soviet Union had almost nothing to export to Europe and the United States. Before the war, it relied on exporting food, timber, oil and a few minerals, but now it basically only has oil.

As for industrial product exports to Europe and the United States, they are almost zero!

Of course, this zero refers to Europe and the United States.

Although the Soviet Union exported arms and other industrial products to non-European and American countries, the problem was that the trade between them was based on Soviet loans or barter trade, using accounting rubles rather than hard currency!

In order to obtain US dollars and hard currency, the Soviet Union basically tried every possible means!
After the war, the Soviet Union had been dumping oil at an ultra-low price of less than $2 per barrel, while the average price at the time was $3 per barrel!
It was precisely relying on the cheap oil supply that West Germany and other Western European countries took the opportunity to rise. After all, oil is the mother of industry. The energy and raw materials provided by oil at about 30% below the market price brought extremely considerable market profits.

Precisely because of these considerable amounts, Borneo Oil Company has been importing oil from the Soviet Union for the past decade or so. This is the magical part: while the company exports oil to Europe from its oil fields in Libya and the Persian Gulf, it also imports large quantities of cheap Soviet oil.

The reason is because it’s cheap!
Many experts found this move incomprehensible. In fact, there was only one reason: lack of money. At the same time, in order to compete with the United States' "Marshall Plan", the Soviet Union began to export oil to Eastern European countries at extremely low prices, creating a very prosperous scene in a short period of time, which was quite enviable to outsiders.

However, as the Soviet economy became increasingly unbalanced, the Soviet Union's proven oil reserves slowly slid to the bottom. The food problem also began to worsen. In order to import food, the Soviet Union had to frequently use its gold reserves. It was not until 1/3 of its gold reserves flowed into the pockets of other countries that the Soviet Union finally picked up oil as its magic weapon. Of course, this is all a story for later.

But at the moment, exporting oil was extremely important to the Soviet Union. In order to occupy the market, it had to resort to low-price dumping.

"But their oil pipeline transportation technology is better!" Anton emphasized:
"Three years ago, in order to make it easier to import oil from our Baku oil fields, they negotiated with Iran to build an oil pipeline. Unlike the 30-inch pipeline of the Americans, their pipeline diameter is 1020 mm, or 40 inches. This is the world's largest oil pipeline, with an annual oil output of 1 million tons..."

After saying 30 million tons, Anton's eyes were full of envy. After all, using oil pipelines to transport oil is the cheapest and most affordable way. As students majoring in oil, they are very clear about the difference between 40-inch and -inch pipelines. Of course, they also know the technical difficulty involved.

After all, the Soviet Union also had oil pipelines. In order to export oil more conveniently, they built the "Friendship" oil pipeline with a diameter ranging from 1020 mm to 426 mm and a total length of 4665 kilometers to transport crude oil to various countries in Eastern and Western Europe.

“Although we can now build 40-inch pipelines, we lag behind them in technologies such as pipeline control.”

"That's true. I heard that their oil pipelines are equipped with many electronic sensors, which can be directly controlled by the control center using electronic computers..."

When talking about computers, Antonov took a look at the campus and said:

“The world’s first transistor was invented by Mathare at this university.”

Then, Antonov looked around, his eyes becoming more and more complicated, and he said with great emotion:

"They invented the transistor, made the electronic computer, and then applied the electronic computer to all aspects, not only in cutting-edge industries, but also in oil transportation control, and even in mechanical machine tools. They should have used this technology..."

At this time, Antonov's tone became a little low:
"Their oil pipelines are even cheaper than ours because they use automated welding machines. Although we also have automated welding machines, our output is far lower than theirs. In order to build the oil pipeline faster, we have to buy the oil pipelines from them, but..."

Shrugging his shoulders helplessly, Antonov said:
"Now Batumi has imposed a ban on large-diameter oil pipelines on us..."

When they mentioned the Western world's embargo on the Soviet Union, their expressions became solemn and serious. After a long while, Nikolayev spoke.

"That's why we need to come here - to learn, master these technologies, produce our products, and then basically get rid of the embargo of the Western world."

As he finished speaking, their expressions all became more serious, and their eyes were filled with a sense of mission - a sense of mission to break the blockade of European and American countries.

Sense of mission!
Even when the car drove into the steel city, Dimitrievich's expression was filled with a sense of mission. The reason he came here was to discuss a business deal.

"We need to break the embargo imposed on us by Western countries led by the United States!"

When saying this, Dimitrievich's tone was still filled with anger because of the US-controlled "Batumi" and the embargo by the Western world.

Only those who have had their necks strangled know how uncomfortable it feels.

They are feeling very uncomfortable now because they are stuck and feel suffocated.

"But, General Manager, this is probably very difficult. After all, this is not an integrated circuit. An integrated circuit is a very small thing. Even if it is packed in the carry-on suitcase of a flight attendant, it can only cost hundreds or thousands of yuan..."

Yevseyevich said that as the business manager of the Southern Jiangsu Trading Company, he had been engaged in various types of trade in the past few years. In fact, the core was to break the embargo of the "Battalion Organization" and purchase the goods on the list from various manufacturers or distributors here, and then ship them back to the country. So he knew very well what kind of goods were the easiest to purchase. Among all the goods, the most valuable and easiest to transport were integrated circuits. The thing was very small, so the Soviet civil aviation stewardesses could just take it on the plane. A Tu-114 flying to and from Moscow could carry thousands of them.

However, what they need now is to purchase bulk commodities, and the amount of commodities they need far exceeds their organizational capabilities.

"General Manager, we must consider this reality. The reality is that we cannot transport hundreds of thousands of tons, or even millions of tons of materials back in a fair and honest manner!"

In fact, all the problems are "above board". Dimitrievich knows very well what the so-called "above board" means here. It means that bulk commodities need to be transported through ports. Smuggling a few thousand tons of materials can be hidden, but what about hundreds of thousands of tons or millions of tons?
This is simply wishful thinking!

It can even be said that there is no need to even think about it, because there is not the slightest possibility.

At least in the eyes of normal people, in the eyes of Yevseyevich, this is almost impossible. After all, such an activity takes too long and requires a lot of manpower. Every link means risk!

"That's not important. What's important is that we complete the mission - to get them to agree to sell it to us!"

While speaking, Dimitrievich cast his eyes towards the building in the distance - the Steel Building. Looking at the building, he couldn't help but feel a little worried - are they willing to make this deal?

(End of this chapter)