The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 49



Only Noblemtl

49. Cantarell Oil Field Development

“I think you’re saying this because you don’t know much about it, but the shipbuilding industry isn’t that easy. Instead of rushing in, how about choosing a company of an appropriate size?”

At first, he was delighted at the idea of ​​acquiring Woo Dae-jo, but as they talked, he seemed to think it was not right and Oh Soo-seok tried to dissuade him.

“Do you know how much an offshore plant costs? Each unit costs 1 billion dollars.”

“Is it that expensive?”

“The equipment to produce and refine crude oil from the sea, including the transportation equipment, are all bundled together in one place, so the price is low. As long as you don’t make stupid contracts, the remaining profit is also large.”

“Wow, that’s incredible. 1.2 trillion won per ship?”

Woo Dae-jo’s sales last year were just over 3 trillion won. Even if you sign a contract for one or two ships, the annual sales will change.

For those who reacted negatively to the takeover like Oh Soo-seok, there was a panacea.

“It’s not like we’re going to rush this anyway. Unlike the time we took over the toad, we have some time to spare, so please take your time and watch my progress before making a decision.”

“Are there any other plans?”

“Do you know about the Cantarell Genetic Fields?”

“Cantarelle Oil Field? I don’t know much about the oil industry, so this is the first time I’ve heard of it.”

“It’s a large offshore oil well in the Caribbean Sea off Mexico, producing 1 million barrels per day. It’s the largest oil well in Mexico. It used to produce close to 2 million barrels per day, but it’s running dry. It’s estimated that it will hit bottom within the next ten years.”

While talking about the preferential treatment of Joseon, the conversation suddenly turned to the Mexican oil field, and Oh Soo-seok tilted his head. The topic of conversation had suddenly changed.

“But why are you suddenly bringing that up?”

“I somehow acquired the rights to explore the area around that oil well.”

“So you’re going to try your hand at oil drilling? I heard that oil drilling is like gambling. Moreover, unlike onshore oil fields, offshore oil field development has a very low success rate. It costs close to $10 million just to drill a single well. Offshore oil field development is a waste of money.”

Korea National Oil Corporation also dug several drilling wells in promising areas where oil could be produced, but they failed.

“The reason I suddenly brought up the topic of preferential acquisition of Chosun is because I am confident in oil drilling. The resource exploration company has already concluded that there is a high possibility of success in oil drilling. The oil was discovered at the test drilling site.”

“The chances of success are high! Is that true?”

“If an expert from a resource exploration company says there is a high probability of success, you have to believe it. It is a very famous company for oil exploration.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Oh Soo-seok’s butt started to wiggle.

Koreans are a people who have a grudge when it comes to oil.

He had to feel the pain of not having resources to the bone after being hit with the first and second oil shocks. After that, he risked his life to the point where the National Intelligence Service got involved in oil drilling, but it was not successful.

Even if the oil well is in a foreign country, if the oil drilling is successful, where will the oil go?

“What will happen to the equity relationship if we succeed?”

“It’s 50-50, so I own half of the shares. The Mexican state-owned oil company owns the other half.”

“I guess it can’t be helped. The winds of nationalization of resources are blowing hard. How big is the field? How big is the field?”

Until just a moment ago, he had been showing a negative attitude toward the acquisition of Woori Shipbuilding, but when I told him that the oil drilling had a high probability of success, he suddenly changed his tune.

“We won’t know the exact size until we drill, but there are signs of a large field. It’s likely to be at least 1 billion barrels.”

“Half of a billion barrels is 500 million barrels. I hope things go well and the size of the oil field is much larger. If we succeed in developing the oil field, the Kaesong Industrial Complex will be a piece of cake. Hehe, I hope we do well and deliver good news to the president before we leave office. It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing. We are now an oil-producing country.”

I drank a bowl of kimchi stew before I could even properly start genetic development.

He kept pouring his drink, feeling good just thinking about it.

“Good! I heard there’s a high chance of success, so give it a try. If you succeed, I’ll help you with the acquisition of Woo Dae-jo as much as possible.”

Oh Soo-seok made a big noise. Even so, the government has less than a year left. It would be fortunate if it did not interfere. This will remove the pressure on investment in the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

He led the mood by appropriately chiming in with Oh Soo-seok, who was still excited and repeating the word “producing country.”

Even from land, it is difficult to properly perceive the deep underground terrain.

The underwater topography in the deep sea is beyond description.

A common method used to measure seafloor topography is the MBES method using acoustic waves.

Measurements are made using a variety of equipment, from simple depth measurements to complex seafloor topography.

Because it is difficult to know where oil is buried, drilling for offshore oil wells is difficult and often fails.

Each time a borehole is drilled, it costs between ten and twenty million dollars, so it’s like throwing money into the ocean.

If the drilling was successful, it would be a jackpot, but there was a high chance of failure.

The same goes for the company I acquired.

I took over the business because they thought it had a high probability of success, but it was suffering from financial difficulties due to long-term failures in oil exploration.

The reason I focused on the Cantarell field is because of its uniqueness. When the oil was discovered in Cantarell in the 70s, the estimated recoverable reserves were 35 billion barrels. It was estimated to have the second largest reserves in the world, following Saudi Ghawar Oil Field, which had 58 billion barrels. However, the oil production, which was up to 3 million barrels per day during its peak, has recently decreased rapidly to 1 million barrels per day.

“What are the simulation results?”

[The rapid increase in production upset the balance of the well. It is believed that the oil moved to nearby areas with the excessive seawater injected during drilling.]

“It’s because the amount of seawater injected was too excessive.”

[When the economic crisis occurred, they tried to increase daily production as much as possible.]

Managing oil wells is no easy task.

Humans do not really understand what the underground terrain looks like. They poured water in to increase production, but instead, the rate of depletion of oil fields has accelerated.

“Where did it flow? It would be troublesome if it went too deep.”

[First, we will mobilize our equipment to scan the seafloor terrain and then decide where to drill.]

“The genes aren’t broken, are they?”

[Fortunately, there are no traces of crude oil leaking in the surrounding area.]

“Then I guess it must have spread to the surrounding area.”

Although it was said to Oh Soo-seok that oil fields had already been discovered, in fact, the oil field development by the resource exploration company Hersa in Cantarell had failed.

The exact oil well was not found, and only wasteful drilling funds were wasted.

They said there were 1 billion barrels, but the actual estimated volume is over 20 billion barrels.

The plan was to use a probe to closely examine the waters around the Cantarell oil field.

If successful, it would give the company a half stake in the mammoth field, which has estimated reserves of at least 20 billion barrels.

“These days, the price of oil is hovering around $30, so I’m going to become the owner of a $600 billion oil field. No, half of it is mine, so it’s worth $300 billion.”

[Don’t you think that you might fail?]

“Me? Failing? How could I have such a stupid thought?”

Although the difficulty of exploring the underwater terrain is slightly higher, we have the technology to thoroughly search through the underground terrain.

It would be nice to be able to make ultra-wideband scanning equipment, but that’s probably impossible.

Even if built, it would require more power than a fusion reactor to function properly.

If your skills are lacking, your body will suffer.

Since Ariel doesn’t have a body, I had to make the exploration equipment myself.

[Make it right the first time. Don’t regret it later.]

I wasn’t at all happy with Ariel’s words of encouragement.

I stopped by the house to say a quick hello and then locked myself in my studio for a week, immersing myself in my work like a wreck.

Most of the parts could be outsourced, but I had to make the important core parts myself and do the final assembly myself.

The only good thing is that in the beginning, I had to do it all manually, as if I was heading straight for the ground, but now that I have all the tools, I don’t have to struggle as much as I used to.

After making it, it looked pretty good.

The final test was to see if the exploration device, which looked like a giant circular headlight, was working properly.

The testing method was simple: They tied the exploration equipment to a large trailer and drove it down a quiet country road.

There’s no way I have a trailer license.

Among the bodyguards who came running to perform security duties, there was one who had a trailer driver’s license, so I gave him the wheel.

I don’t know why the bodyguard has a trailer driver’s license.

“Your first mission is ridiculous, isn’t it?”

I took over the company for security reasons, but this was the first time I received proper security.

As soon as I got back to Korea, I didn’t go out and just stayed in my studio.

Once outside, he asked his security guards to find someone with a trailer license and immediately assigned them to drive down a country road.

The rear of the trailer was modified to house equipment that interprets the information read by the exploration equipment.

“I’ve met a lot of strange people while doing security work, so this is nothing special, but what are you doing now?”

It was a question from an employee who asked to be called Team Leader Oh.

“I’m taking a test to read the ground.”

“Do you read underground? How deep?”

“If the current experiment is successful, it will be possible to read up to 300M.”

“Is that possible? Is it really true?”

Team Leader Oh opened his eyes wide in surprise.

“We are probably experimenting with it now because it is possible.”

“Wow! This is really amazing!”

“What is it?”

“When I was in the military, I participated in a lot of tunnel exploration work. The most I could do was poke around with a probe. They were experts and they said things like sonar and such, but they couldn’t even read 10 meters deep. They said that the noise coming from underground was so bad that it was difficult to properly identify the terrain even 50 meters underground. But 300 meters underground? If I had this equipment, I would be able to find the tunnels. No matter how deep I dug, they wouldn’t go beyond 150 meters.”

It was a use I hadn’t thought of.

“A tunnel? I’ll think about it if the experiment is successful. I don’t know what will happen since it’s equipment that needs to be kept confidential.”

At my indifferent reaction, Team Leader Oh changed the subject, perhaps realizing that he had just been discharged from the military.

“I said this because I was reminded of the hardships I had in the military, but we have to maintain security.”

As the exploration equipment moved around, artificial intelligence restored the underground information read by the equipment into three dimensions and displayed it on a large screen.

“So that’s what the underground looks like.”

Team Leader Oh looked at the screen with curious eyes.

The general underground terrain is implemented in 3D, but the specific details are encrypted and stored separately.

I diligently read the information the explorer brought in.

There was a significant amount of copper 300 meters underground from the land you are reading about now.

It seemed like there would be a fair amount of mining. If there had been just a little more, I would have tried developing the mine, but it wasn’t that much.

I tried it out here and there, but it had a fatal weakness.

“This isn’t a hippopotamus that drinks water. It eats a ton of oil.”

He followed behind with a tired expression on his face and connected a hose to a tanker to fill it with oil.

After 30 minutes of operating the exploration equipment, even the large, specially-made fuel tanks were empty.

Even though I lowered the output for the test, it was like this.

Just thinking about how much fuel would be needed if the equipment size was increased and the output was increased gave me a headache. It seemed that a large fuel tanker would have to follow the probe to properly explore.

Normally, I didn’t know that this much energy would be required since I usually use nuclear fusion engines. After making it, I realized that it’s a complete energy hog.

We ran the equipment for half a day and verified that it was running without any problems.

“If you want to install the equipment, the ship must be at least 20,000 tons?”

[Should we take over a separate ship?]

“That’s what we should do. If we hang the equipment on a ship that is currently being used as a probe, we’ll just keep stopping and starting.”

[It would be quicker to buy a used container ship and remodel it. Also increase the size of the fuel tank. If you can load a lot of fuel yourself and have a fuel ship following behind, you should be able to operate the exploration equipment. If it’s not a nuclear propulsion engine, you’ll need to pour oil into it to make it work properly.]

“There’s nothing we can do. Try to get the blueprints for remodeling the ship. It’ll take a lot of time to build a probe.”

Even if I grumbled, I had to do what I had to do.

We purchased a used container ship that was up for sale and started remodeling it according to the blueprints created by Ariel.