Babylonian Empire

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"Yes."

"However, Prime Minister, it is very difficult for us to implement this plan now." Weber said: "Because the current high-level leaders of the Soviet Union do not pay attention to energy at all, they are all engaged in power struggles, vying for the top .”

For the Soviet Union, the energy issue is very important, but when it comes to new power issues, it is even more important. They have already received news that Chernenko has been hospitalized for more than a month, and I am afraid that he is about to die, but , this old man is very stubborn, and has never designated an heir.

They fought hard.

"Their power struggle may last for a month or a year, but we can't wait that long. Our North Sea oil fields cannot afford to delay," Weber said.

7 Chapter sixty

"President, the recent world oil prices are low. Mrs. Thatcher has suggested to us several times that we need to put pressure on the Middle East countries to restore their original production quotas, so that the world oil prices can return to a reasonable range." Vice President President Bush said to President Reagan: "Moreover, the world's oil prices are so low. Although our domestic oil fields have reduced oil production as much as possible, they still can't bear it."

Low oil prices are a boon for countries that need to import oil. Low oil prices have brought about the rapid development of logistics and other industries. However, it is definitely not a good thing for oil-producing countries.

The United Kingdom, the major oil exporter in Europe, can no longer bear it. As far as the United States is concerned, although the United States has increased its strategic crude oil reserves through low oil prices, and has reduced its own domestic oil extraction, it has also provided some subsidies. However, American oil merchants are also having headaches for the reduced benefits, especially Vice President Bush, who himself is an oil merchant.Bush is very economical. Just after World War II, he gave up his superior life in New England and took his new wife to start a business in the newly emerging oil state of Texas.With the funding of his uncle, Bush founded his own oil company in 1951. In 1966, Bush was elected to Congress, then served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and finally became the vice president.

Now that Bush's own interests are beginning to suffer, of course he has to be concerned.So, he proposed to the president that the price of oil seems a bit too low this time?

Who knows, what President Reagan said convinced Bush.For a long time, President Reagan has been accustomed to listening to his subordinates' speeches, and then choose a plan he thinks is the best. Vice President Bush often advises President Reagan, and his opinions are adopted.

In fact, President Reagan's consideration was more thorough. How could Reagan be an incompetent person who was able to rise from an actor to the presidency?

"Who is our greatest enemy right now?" President Reagan asked.

"The Soviet Union, of course," Bush said.

"So, what is our strategy against the Soviet Union?"

"Economically, bring down the Soviet Union!" Bush said. In order to deal with the huge empire in the north, the United States made a wise decision to use an arms race to bring down the Soviet Union.The United States took advantage of its economic advantages to drag the Soviet Union onto the path of an arms race. Now, the domestic economic situation in the United States is very bad, because the United States has invested a lot of money in the military, including the famous Star Wars program.As for the Soviet Union, the economy is even more pessimistic, because the Soviet Union has to maintain the same military expenditure as the United States on the basis of a gross national product that is much lower than that of the United States. The Soviet Union is now starting to launch aircraft carriers with great fanfare. , is the real power?The real strength is economic!

The Soviet Union has now begun to borrow money from Western Europe. After this action begins, the Soviet Union will not slow down. Like a snowball, the debt will grow bigger and bigger. In the end, they will have to borrow new debts to pay off old debts. At that time, they can use the debt problem to force the Soviet Union to make concessions on some issues.If the Soviet Union does not make concessions, then it will not lend funds to the Soviet Union, so that they will have no funds and import food!

Reagan's vision is also quite poisonous. He has already thought that the current low oil price will not only hurt the British oil industry, but the Soviet oil industry will be even more hurt. This is a good time!Wouldn't it be better to let that huge empire bleed to death slowly?

Bush is also a smart person. When Reagan said this, he understood that what President Reagan meant was to take advantage of the low oil price to bring down the Soviet Union!

In later generations, it was precisely under Reagan's proposal that Saudi Arabia increased production on a large scale, which led to a downturn in world oil prices. As a result, the Soviet Union became poorer and poorer. Finally, Gorbachev found that when he came to power, his subordinates had nothing Yes, he wants to reform, but he has no funds. There are several ways to plug the funding gap. For example, stop bartering oil and gas with the Eastern European republics, and use the oil and gas to exchange hard money with the West. currency.However, in this case, all the union republics may be disintegrated.Second, reduce 2000 billion annual food imports.This meant that most people would go hungry and be rationed at World War II levels.If this kind of behavior was carried out in the 80s, I am afraid that the Soviet Union would collapse in a month.Or, it is to carry out large-scale reductions in the military industry and reduce military expenditures.But many Soviet cities depended on military enterprises, which would cause huge contradictions.If Gorbachev does this, he will lose the support of the army, which is even more dangerous.

Gorbachev had no choice, so he embarked on the old road of borrowing new debts to pay off old debts.

Bush also sees the great advantage of doing so, which can make the giant of the Soviet Union gradually lose its vitality and decline.

However, the Soviet Union has not yet finished bleeding, and his own blood will start to flow down.

Texas is the largest state in the southern United States and the second largest state in the United States after Alaska.The crude oil produced by the oil center here is called "West Texas Intermediate". The output of crude oil ranks first in the United States, and the output of natural gas ranks second in the United States.

Since this oil has less sulfur content, it is suitable for the production of light oils such as gasoline and petroleum products.The quality of crude oil is higher than that of Brent crude oil produced in the North Sea, crude oil produced in Dubai, and other crude oil produced in other countries. Therefore, the transaction price is a few dollars higher per barrel.Moreover, Texas has developed oil fields for hundreds of years.The infrastructure for excavation, development, and production is very complete, so a lot of initial development costs can be saved.The oil pipelines in Texas are widely distributed, and they are sold in the United States. The consumption places and oil refining bases are very close, which greatly saves transportation costs.Under various conditions, the production cost of oil fields in Texas is very low. Therefore, the oil industry in the United States is still able to survive, but the profit has decreased, which is also very uncomfortable. They mine oil for profit Yes, definitely not to contribute.

The profits of Bush's oil company are already very low, so low that he cannot accept it.

Although the interests of the United States are very important, Bush was already an oil businessman before he became vice president, so he still needs to take into account his own interests.

Although the country has begun to subsidize its own oil industry to a small extent, the finances of the United States are also very difficult now. The fiscal deficit of the United States often reaches 1000 billion U.S. dollars, which is a terrible figure.The current drop in oil prices has improved the U.S. economy.However, Bush can't let his oil company continue to live like this because of this, right?

However, Bush couldn't directly mention it like this, so he represented the oil tycoons in Texas to propose to President Reagan that the price of oil seemed a bit too low, and the Iron Lady couldn't lose even her skirt. no?

However, after President Reagan said this, Bush felt that since the Soviet Union could be brought down in this way, in the eyes of the president, his own interests would definitely be sacrificed.

"George." President Reagan said: "Although in this way, we are doing our best to fight our common enemy, and our own domestic oil producers have suffered certain losses."

Speaking of this, Reagan paused. Of course, he intended to tell Bush what he said. Who doesn't know that Bush is an oil tycoon in Texas!

"However, this matter is not necessarily harmful to us. We know that BP is almost unable to withstand it, so what should BP do next?" Reagan asked.

BP is the British Petroleum Company. When Bush heard it, he understood that the president is the most shrewd, and he actually made such a calculation!

Thanks to the prestige of the empire that never fell, the British oil hegemony was established in the second half of the nineteenth century.The United Kingdom owns oil fields in many parts of the world. Although the prestige is not there now, the foundation of the United Kingdom is still there. The United Kingdom still has shares in the oil fields of many other countries. For example, the Oman Petroleum Development Company manipulated 90.00% of Oman’s oil Reserves and 90.00% production. In this company, BP accounts for 20.00% of the shares, not only in these underdeveloped countries, but also in developed countries. For example, in the Canadian Dome Petroleum Company, BP holds a large number of shares , Even, even in the United States, in Texas, BP also has a large number of shares in oil fields!

And President Reagan's calculations are very clever. The British oil company is too powerful. Although the United States and the United Kingdom are allies and the closest comrades-in-arms, when it comes to interests, brothers and clear accounts The truth is true everywhere. (In later generations, the United States took advantage of BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill to snatch BP's shares in Mexico.) Simply taking advantage of this oil price cut, when it hit the Soviet Union, it seriously affected BP's income. In this way, in order to survive, BP must try various methods, such as selling their shares in American Petroleum Corporation!

Bush originally came from an oil company. When he heard what President Reagan said, he immediately understood. Next, what his company needs to do is to raise funds and prepare to acquire BP in Texas when their funds are cut off. stake in the oil company!

Thinking of the benefits American oil merchants have gained, Bush naturally has no doubts about President Reagan's actions.

"This time, Iraq cooperated surprisingly. It seems that as long as we throw more olive greens at Iraq, Iraq will turn to us." Bush said. "Perhaps, according to the conditions Iraq put forward last time, if Britain can't pay for the E-3 early warning aircraft, we can really consider selling this early warning aircraft to Iraq first."

Chapter 761 Potential Stock

In the northeast of Africa, along the coast of the Red Sea, at the eastern end of the Sahara Desert, just south of Egypt, there is a country that is not concerned by the world's major media, Sudan.

In Africa, most countries are war-torn, and Sudan is no exception.

In particular, the 12th parallel north, which runs across the African continent, happens to separate the Muslims living in northern Sudan from the traditional or Christian blacks living in the south.This line is basically the watershed between nomads and farming peoples.The north is the southern tip of the Sahara Desert, and the main body is nomadic people. The south is rich in water resources and farming is well developed.

For thousands of years, the conflict between nomads and farming peoples has been going on. When the rain is good, the farming peoples will open up to the north and occupy the land of the nomads. In the dry season, the nomads will go south to invade the land of the farming peoples.Because nomads are more powerful in combat, most of the time, nomads have an advantage.

Before the dúlì in Sudan, the north was relatively open, and received British education, with a high level of education, while most of the south was still in the primitive tribal chief system, which led to the fact that after the dúlì in Sudan, the northerners dominated of.

However, the south has been in turmoil until 1969, when Sudan's civil servant zhèngfǔ was overthrown by a military coup. After the 39-year-old Ga'afar-El-Nemiri came to power, he eased the relationship with the south. In 72, the south achieved a certain degree of self-government regime, but the good times only lasted for a few years. In 1978, oil fields were discovered in the south, this black gold that could bring huge benefits, once again increased the conflict between the north and the south.The southern self-government zhèngfǔ required the establishment of an oil refinery in the south, but Nimaili built the oil refinery in the north, and also built an oil pipeline leading to the Red Sea to directly export crude oil.Later, Nimailisuo Xìng will redefine the north-south border, delimiting the oil fields in the south and the rich agricultural areas of Upper Nile Province to the north.Then, Nimeiri banned the southern self-government zhèngfǔ, which had been established for 10 years, was banned, and the south was re-divided into three provinces, and the political structure before 1972 was restored.

Immediately, another large-scale armed confrontation took place in Sudan. This time, the southern regime was supported by Gaddafi in Libya.

Unfortunately, Nanfang chose the wrong target.

Since Gaddafi supported the southern regime, Nimeiri naturally opposed Libya unceremoniously and publicly condemned Gaddafi.But now, the US regards Gaddafi squarely as an evil force, so naturally it unceremoniously supports Nimeiri's regime.The United States has provided more than $15 billion in military aid to Nimeiri.

With money to fight, Nimaili, who came to power by coup d'état, had thwarted more than a dozen coup d'états during his time in power. Naturally, he dared to be ruthless and started a large-scale military operation against the south, which went relatively well.

However, Nimeiri is good at fighting wars, but not at economic construction.Nimeiri knew that Sudan needed to increase its own food production, and the improvement of agriculture required the implementation of mechanized agricultural production. He failed very much, and the production was not very high, but he borrowed a lot of foreign debt.By the early 80s, Sudan's foreign debt had reached US$120 billion, which exceeded Sudan's ability to pay.

The house leak happened to rain overnight. Just last year and the year before last, Sudan suffered from drought for two consecutive years.In order to maintain Sudan's international image, Nimeiri did not take the drought seriously, which is also very common in backward African regions.As a result, the number of deaths caused by the famine reached 25, and the number of victims reached 175 million. The people have lost confidence in Nimeiri.

Just when 85 came, Sudan had become a country with material shortages, inflation, and currency devaluation.

"In such a country, a just military coup is bound to happen to change the fate of the Sudanese people," Qusay said.

No one will doubt President Qusay's words. Numerous incidents have proved that President Qusay has amazing judgment.

Only Qusay himself knows. The reason why he is so sure is because he knows that in April this year, when Nimeiri visited the United States, the main person in charge of the army, Minister of Defense Abdul Rahman - Hassan-Suwar-Dahab will launch a military coup, claiming to remove Nimeiri from the presidency, while, given the deteriorating situation, the military will take over and "will remain in power for the time being".

At such a good time, Qusay will never let go of this opportunity.Sudan at one end of the Red Sea is of great significance to Iraq.

Of course, the most important thing is that Sudan has abundant oil resources, although there are still very few major oil fields in Sudan. For example, the Hadjiliji Oilfield, more than 700 kilometers southwest of the capital Khartoum, has crude oil reserves of about 9000 million tons. , The recoverable reserves of the Unity oilfield are about 1.6 million tons.These production and reserves have not yet been seen by the world's oil giants.But Qusay knew that these were just the tip of the iceberg.In later generations, the eastern powers helped to develop Sudan’s oil resources, which made all Western countries red-eyed, because Sudan’s oil reserves, conservatively estimated, will exceed 1800 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia, ranking second in the world.And a bolder estimate is that Sudan has more oil reserves than Iran and Saudi Arabia combined!

In future generations, Iraq itself will not be able to protect itself, and it is absolutely impossible to intervene in these affairs, but now, it is a good opportunity for Iraq!

Iraqi oil companies are about to enter the world. In addition to challenging BP, Qusay cannot let go of potential stocks.