The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 592: Opportunities in the Ship Attack War (Subscription Request)
Beijing, Siheyuan.

Liu Tao looked at the information in his hand and shook his head slightly.

The outbreak of this ship attack really caught everyone off guard.

This chain reaction really proves the saying: a single move affects the entire body!

At first, Iraq only wanted to sink a few warships in Khomeini Port to disgust the Persians, but it ended up bringing revenge from the Persians.

The Persians dealt a heavy blow to Iraq and directly destroyed the Iraqi navy.

Then Iraq retaliated against the Persians by attacking their oil tankers; the Persians also retaliated against the Iraqis by attacking their oil tankers.

You know, the price of oil is high now. Even at the previous price of $35 a barrel, a 73.3-ton tanker would mean a loss of 2565.5 barrels of oil, and the oil alone is worth $ million.

As for a 100,000-ton oil tanker, it is worth a lot of money.

However, the country that suffered the greatest losses in this ship raid was not Iraq, but Persia.

Khuzestan Province of Persia is one of the 63213 provinces of Persia, with an area of ​​ square kilometers. It borders Ilam Province, Lorestan Province and Isfahan Province to the north, Chahamahal-Bakhtiari Province, Kohgiluyeh-Bove-Ahmad Province and Bushir Province to the east, Iraq to the west and the Persian Gulf to the south.

The east and north of this province are mountainous, while the southwest is a rare plain in Persia. The land here is fertile and there are abundant oil resources beneath the land. It is a major oil-producing province in Persia. It is also a coastal area with two ports, Abadan Port and Khomeini Port. Therefore, the strategic location here is very important.

When the Iran-Iraq War broke out, Iraq had its eyes on this place and attacked Persia in three directions, with the southern route being the most powerful. Unfortunately, due to the special geographical location of Abadan and Port Khomeini, the Iraqi army failed to capture them after several attacks.

So far, Iraq has occupied the western and southern parts of Khuzestan Province, which are plains. Only Abadan and Port Khomeini remain in the hands of the Persians in the western and southern parts of Khuzestan Province. As for the eastern and northern parts of Khuzestan Province, which are mountainous, they are controlled by the Persians.

Khuzestan province holds 90 percent of Persia's total crude oil reserves! Persia's total oil reserves account for 11 percent of the world's total, and Iraq accounts for 9.7 percent.

If Iraq occupied the entire Khuzestan province, it would be equivalent to Iraq accounting for nearly 20 percent of the world's oil reserves.

This number is very shocking.

In recent years, Iraq has also been extracting oil in the occupied areas, and in return, Abadan and Port Khomeini have also continued to export oil. The two sides have a tacit understanding.

Generally speaking, Iraq has a narrow seaport. Although it can be loaded through Kuwait's oil pipeline, Iraq's daily oil production in the south and occupied areas is very small, probably less than 100 million barrels. Iraq's main export oil is transported to Turkey through domestic oil pipelines and then exported from Turkey.

Persia is different. Most of its oil exports come from Abadan and Port Khomeini.

The outbreak of this ship attack had a greater impact on Persia.

Liu Tao pondered for a moment and muttered to himself, "It seems necessary to contact old friends. We can fight, but it can't affect making money."

Over the years, he has made a lot of money every year by acting as an intermediary and exporting oil to Persia.

Now a ship-raiding war has broken out between Iran and Iraq. It would be bad if our merchant ships were attacked.

Here, many merchant ships go to the Persian Gulf every day, and then transport oil from the Persian Gulf to all over the world.

It can be said that he is the real beneficiary. Afterwards, Liu Tao made an appointment with Usamai and Malaek.

It turned out that his old friends Al and Mohammed had returned to their country and served as foreign ministers respectively. Osama took over Al's job and was responsible for Iraq's affairs in China.

And the same thing happened to Malaek, who took over from Muhammad.

Liu Tao has a good relationship with them, and China is a friendly country to both of them, with mutual cooperation and win-win results. Liu Tao believes that as long as he communicates well, Iraq and Persia should still be willing to give him face.

And in Liu Tao's view, this can also be seen as an opportunity to make a fortune.

When the Iran-Iraq ship-raiding war broke out, Liu Tao was busy and did not realize that he had missed an opportunity to make a fortune. By the time he learned about it, the price of oil had skyrocketed and he could no longer make any money by entering the market again.

But it is different now. If his oil tankers can enter and exit the Persian Gulf freely and will not be attacked by Iran and Iraq, then the profits will be huge.

There are fewer and fewer oil tankers coming out of the Persian Gulf. The greater the risk, the greater the profit. Even if the oil is only transported to Singapore or Hong Kong, the profit will be very high.

To be honest, Liu Tao would be tempted when he thought about the profits involved.

Liu Tao learned that the situation in the Persian Gulf is very complicated now. Large oil tankers are very cautious, and many large oil tankers do not even dare to enter the Persian Gulf.

To be honest, the stock market crash caused by Black Monday that broke out in the United States last year affected the whole world, and many people even called it an economic crisis.

Oil prices once fell below $30 per barrel.

But in just a few months, the United States emerged from the shadow of the economic crisis through a series of bailouts, and other countries gradually emerged as well. In addition, the world's overall use of oil has been increasing, and Libya, an important oil exporter, has been lost.

This caused oil prices to rise again after the Spring Festival, and the international crude oil price rose to US$35 per barrel again.

During the Iran-Iraq ship attack, the international crude oil price soared in just a few days and has risen to US$45 per barrel.

In the afternoon, Liu Tao invited Usamai to have tea together, exchanged pleasantries, and talked about the friendly cooperative relationship between the two sides.

Over the years, the relationship between the two sides has been quite close. Panshan Group alone delivers a lot of weapons to Iraq every year. The key is that Panshan Group's weapons and ammunition are very cost-effective in the international arms market, and the prices of weapons of the same level are much lower. Iraq can save a lot of money every year just by purchasing weapons and ammunition from Panshan Group and China.

Not to mention, Iraq imports a large amount of daily necessities, including industrial products, from China every year, and the trade volume between the two sides has repeatedly set new highs.

China has been importing crude oil from Iraq since three years ago. At that time, it was not that China did not have enough oil for its own use, but that the crude oil was refined into finished oil products and exported to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Moreover, after so many years of cooperation, Iraq is very sure that China is a very good partner. The two sides have signed contracts and have not failed to fulfill them so far. Unlike Europe and the United States, Iraq ordered warships from Italy in 1980 and paid the money, but now there is no sign of the warships.

Before coming to China, Usamai was repeatedly told by his superiors to do a good job in this regard for China and maintain friendly relations between the two sides.

This time Liu Tao personally invited him to have tea, so Usamai naturally wanted to improve the relationship between the two sides and maintain a friendly partnership.

(End of this chapter)