African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 1345 Energy Structure

In May, Britain, France, Germany and Austria held a secret contact meeting in the Netherlands, and the long road to negotiation began. This was already a good start.

After all, Europe has been at war for nearly five years, and both sides have made tens of millions of sacrifices. It is wishful thinking to expect them to shake hands and make peace in a short time.

As long as time goes by, peace will eventually come. After all, European countries are not fools. They do not want to make a wedding dress for East Africa, the United States and Soviet Russia.

The East African Ambassador to the Netherlands said: "I suggest that everyone negotiate calmly. Everyone is here for peace, so we should seek common ground while reserving differences and abandon some stubborn and rigid ideas."

Dutch Prime Minister Kuyper also agreed very much and said: "Europe is completely inferior to a few big countries. There is no need to fight to the death. Only if everyone takes a step back without harming their own core interests can Europe have a better future. "

Even so, the representatives of several participating countries were still furious at the meeting. The first meeting was interrupted several times, which made East Africa and the Netherlands very busy trying to stop the fight.

…

After all, European meetings and wars will not affect the current development of East Africa. As time goes by, various data obtained by the East African government are also concentrated.

Rhine city.

The East African Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Resources, the National Bureau of Statistics and other government departments recently organized a joint meeting to summarize and analyze the current energy production situation in East Africa.

Minister of Industry Mette said: "At present, our country's energy structure has undergone major changes. In addition to stable coal production, oil has also become the most inaccessible and irreplaceable important energy source in the empire. Hydropower accounts for a large proportion of the energy structure. The scale has increased, and the extraction and application of natural gas have also begun to spread on a large scale.”

"Coal is still my country's number one energy source and is widely used in steel, metallurgy, power generation and other fields."

"Throughout 1918, my country's coal production increased to more than 230,000 tons. Compared with the Third Five-Year Plan period, it was about 30 million tons higher, but the number of workers in coal-related industries dropped to 1.08 million."

The annual coal mining volume in East Africa is not very high, especially among the world's major countries. This figure is only equivalent to the annual coal production of the United Kingdom and Germany. The United States' annual coal production exceeded more than 200 million tons at the end of the 19th century, and now it is in the fourth century. More than 100 million tons.

The UK's current annual coal output is approximately over 290,000 tons, close to the level of 300 million tons, while Germany is more modest than the UK, with its annual coal production also being around 270,000 tons.

The United States, the United Kingdom, East Africa, and Germany are currently the only four countries in the world with coal production exceeding 200 million tons.

The output of France, Austria-Hungary and Russia all ranges from tens of millions of tons. France is limited by the lack of natural conditions and lacks local coal resources, so its output cannot increase, while Russia is industrially backward and has underdeveloped technology. For this reason, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was somewhere in between.

Looking at it this way, East Africa's coal production ranks fourth in the world, second only to the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, but its overall production is far ahead of other countries.

However, the total amount is one thing, and the per capita amount is another. East Africa has now become the third most populous country in the world, second only to the Far Eastern Empire and India. Therefore, compared with the United States, Britain and Germany, East Africa’s coal output is On the low side.

Minister Mette also explained the reason for this result: "With the promotion of energy sources such as oil and natural gas, my country's coal mining industry has been impacted to a certain extent."

"With the development of energy such as oil, natural gas and hydropower, the gap between my country's coal output and the United States and Germany may further widen."

"But this is a good phenomenon. It illustrates the diversified development of the empire's energy resources, thereby avoiding the empire's future difficulties that Britain faces today."

The UK is the world's second largest coal producer, not counting coal production in the British colonies, but the UK's huge coal industry is facing serious problems.

On the one hand, with the steady advancement of the second industrial revolution, the British coal industry has now reached its peak. Due to industrial restrictions, the powerful coal industry has become a constraint on British industry.

On the other hand, the UK's coal utilization efficiency is relatively low. Although its output is high, its utilization rate is not as good as that of countries such as the United States, Germany and East Africa.

This can be seen from the steel industries of various countries. Although the UK is the fourth largest steel producer in the world, its output is far behind East Africa, the United States and Germany.

This is actually understandable. Compared with the UK, East Africa, the United States and Germany are all late-developing industrial countries, so their technology, management, equipment, etc. are all updated faster than the British coal companies.

Mate said: "In terms of our domestic development, the development of oil, electricity and natural gas has had a great impact on the coal industry, and the UK itself maintains a large and old coal production system, which is not conducive to Follow-up industrial upgrading in the UK.”

"This also proves to a certain extent the benefits of energy diversification to the empire's industrial production, especially at the strategic level, which effectively guarantees our country's energy security."

"In the coal field alone, according to final data, as of 1918, our country's proven coal reserves were as high as 60 billion tons. Our country's coal resources are enough to mine the entire country for hundreds of years."

East Africa's coal reserves are of course more than 60 billion tons. This is data obtained by the East African government with the support of current technology and theory.

With the development of theory, technological progress and the passage of time, more and more coal mines will be discovered in East Africa.

Mate said: "In addition to the increasing number of newly surveyed coal resources every year, the substitution of other energy sources can also ensure the empire's long-term competition with other major countries in the field of coal energy."

"In fact, in addition to the empire's local coal mining, imported coal has also become an important source of coal for the empire."

"In the past few years, we have gradually increased coal imports from Colombia and Australia, and coal production in the imperial colonies has also begun to be initially developed, especially in places such as Kalimantan and Mindanao."

Although the coal resources in East Africa, based on what Ernst knew in his previous life, were not as good as those in the United States, Russia, and the Far Eastern Empire in his previous life, the huge land area of ​​East Africa turned East Africa into a country with large coal resources.

It can be said that judging from the public data of previous generations, more than 90% of the coal-producing areas in Africa are located in East Africa, especially in the central and southern areas of East Africa.

Mate said: "Although coal has low combustion efficiency and high pollution compared to energy sources such as oil, its advantages cannot be replaced by other energy sources, especially in the fields of steel, metallurgy and coal chemical industry."

"So coal will continue to maintain its position as the first energy source, and we have formulated relevant plans to further expand the use of coal-related industries. In particular, scientific research in coal chemical industry, coal-to-liquids and other fields will continue to advance."

In previous generations, coal-to-liquid technology was a technology that countries lacking oil resources paid more attention to, such as Germany, Japan and South Africa, and later the Far Eastern Empire. In the previous life, Germany was the first to conduct research on coal-to-liquid technology, but in the 21st century, the country that has truly realized large-scale promotion and application is South Africa. The reason why South Africa has become the most advanced country with this technology is actually related to the development of South Africa. Since South Africa became free After globalization, Europe and the United States launched a decades-long blockade on South Africa.

This includes an oil embargo against South Africa. South Africa itself is a country extremely short of oil resources, but South Africa has the richest coal reserves in Africa. Therefore, under the leadership of the South African government, coal-to-liquid technology has achieved breakthroughs and success in South Africa. develop.

Therefore, it is no wonder that the Far Eastern Empire in its previous life talked about energy security all day long. Although East Africa got rid of the dilemma of lack of oil resources through colonial expansion.

However, East Africa does not have much local oil resources and they are mostly distributed in the northern region. Although the overseas colonies are rich in oil resources, their geographical locations are not secure, so East Africa has not stopped conquering coal-to-liquid technology.

In fact, the East African government has been researching this technology since the 1990s, but with the diversification of oil acquisition channels, the progress has slowed down.

At the current stage, East Africa is really focusing on coal chemical industry. To a certain extent, coal-to-liquids belongs to the category of coal chemical industry. However, coal-to-liquids is mainly to deal with energy problems, while coal chemical industry involves many fields and can bring a large number of chemical products, the market prospects are very broad.

Mate said: "The coal industry is one of the important cornerstones of East Africa's economic development, especially in important fields such as steel, metallurgy, chemical industry, and power generation, so we will continue to promote its technical development."

"Petroleum is currently the second largest fossil energy source in the empire. From the beginning of this century, the empire has long been the world's largest producer of refined oil."

"In 1918, the empire's refined oil production reached more than 300 million barrels, which was more than the rest of the world combined."

"In terms of public transportation, machinery, automobiles, chemicals, etc., the petroleum industry plays a supporting role. It can be said that the development of the petroleum industry is an important force in driving my country's emerging industries."

At present, the world's oil production is mainly concentrated in four regions, namely East Africa, North America and Eastern Europe, and finally South America. The oil production in these four places accounts for more than 90% of the world's oil production, and the refined oil production of a country in East Africa accounts for more than 90% of the world's oil production. More than 70%.

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Minister Met said: "The contribution of petroleum energy to the industrial development of the empire is even greater than that of coal, especially for emerging industries. Without oil, there would be no great development of emerging industries such as chemical industry, railways, and automobiles."

"Without the development of the oil industry, our country's industry will always be a follower of European and American countries in many fields, rather than an innovator."

"For example, in terms of railways, the emergence of diesel locomotives has greatly improved the transportation efficiency of our country's railways. If we just copy European and American countries, then we will only be simply copying at the railway level."

"Not to mention the automobile industry, it has directly changed the pattern of the world's transportation industry and put East Africa's economic development on the fast track. Together with the railway, it has made the empire's land transportation efficiency rank first in the world."

"And the chemical industry is also very dependent on petroleum. At present, the petrochemical industry is already quite large-scale and generates relatively generous profits. It has huge potential. It is an important driving force that may push my country's technology and industry to surpass Europe and the United States."

"In addition to coal and oil, the most important thing is hydropower. As an energy source, the production of electricity is relatively complex. Coal, oil and natural gas can all be used as raw materials for power generation."

"Therefore, we list hydropower separately and put it on the same level as the three major fossil energy sources: coal, oil, and natural gas."

"In 1918, my country's hydroelectric power generation accounted for more than 30% of the country's total power generation, which greatly promoted the rapid development of a number of cities and industries, especially areas rich in water resources."

"The electric power industry is related to electrolytic aluminum, machinery, lighting, industrial and household electricity, and has great economic and social value."

"Our country is one of the countries with the richest water conservancy resources. The application of water conservancy resources has greatly reduced our use of coal, oil and natural gas."

"Hydropower itself is a renewable resource, which greatly reduces the consumption of fossil energy, while also reducing the pressure and cost of mining, transportation and other energy sources."

"The transportation of oil and coal relies on railways and roads, while the construction of natural gas pipelines requires a lot of costs. Relatively speaking, electricity can be more conveniently transported across the country through high-voltage transmission, and has less impact on social production and living activities."

At present, among the four major energy sources in East Africa, except for coal, the output ranks first in the world. This is one of the reasons why East Africa's industry is booming.

Mate said: "Our Ministry of Industry's vision for the future of Imperial Energy is still to diversify and improve resource utilization efficiency."

“Promote the technological progress of coal, a traditional energy source, in the industrial field, including increasing the degree of mechanized mining, further popularizing large-scale excavation machinery in large mines, equipping more transport vehicles, reducing the number of workers in dangerous jobs, and improving the work of front-line workers. Environmental safety.”

"While strengthening the steady increase in coal production, we will continue to update equipment and technology to improve production efficiency and worker safety."

Coal directly employs as many as one million people in East Africa. After the end of the slave economy, the previous management, equipment configuration and technology of East African coal mines are no longer applicable, especially for some small coal mines.

In the past, coal mining in East Africa could ignore and sacrifice the lives and safety of black workers and increase output through high-intensity operations. Now, these problems must be solved by increasing the degree of mechanization.

"In the field of oil production, we will further search for new oil fields across the country, and find and invest in more oil fields overseas to ensure the empire's long-term demand for oil resources in the future."

"Construct more water conservancy facilities, especially the Daxing Water Conservancy Project, to further increase the proportion of hydropower in energy production, reduce energy production costs, and reduce the burden on domestic enterprises and residents."

"The last step is to build a number of large-scale pipeline network systems across the country to realize the transportation of liquid fuels such as oil and natural gas, further reducing the pressure and burden of energy transportation on roads and railways, and at the same time saving transportation costs."

After all, oil and natural gas are flammable and explosive items, and their transportation risks are relatively high.

After Minister Mette finished his report, other departments also put forward their own views on the current energy issues in East Africa.

Overall, East Africa's demands for energy are reflected in many aspects, including reducing production and transportation costs, improving utilization efficiency, attaching importance to scientific and technological research and development, and finally maintaining energy security.

This sense of worry still illustrates the East African government's concerns about its own energy, especially coal and oil. Although East Africa has certain reserves in these two areas, its talent is not at the top level, such as the United States and Russia. In fact, If the Far Eastern Empire had not had too many people in its previous life, its energy endowment would have been higher than that of East Africa.

Of course, the big countries mentioned here are all countries whose land area and population have reached a certain base. Although Germany is very strong, it cannot be said to be big compared to the above-mentioned countries. However, Germany has a land area and population The population size was sufficient at the beginning of this century.

(End of chapter)