The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 70



Only Noblemtl

70. Texas Ranch

As time went by, crude oil production stabilized. The Cantarell field, which was first successfully drilled, maintained a daily production of one million barrels, and a huge amount of money was deposited into the account of Herr, who had a 25% stake.

The profit after deducting facility costs from production costs was $60 million per month.

Of the proceeds from the sale of shares, $200 million was distributed as bonuses to Herr employees. Kendall and Clark received $200 million and $300 million respectively as drilling success bonuses.

It may seem like a lot, but it was compensation for giving me shares in the company for a pittance.

The daily production capacity of the Seohae oil field was 450,000 barrels. It was developed later than the Cantarell oil field, and the demand itself was different.

When oil refiners buy oil, they prefer long-term contracts if possible. Since they have to consume the volume already contracted, the amount of crude oil needed domestically cannot be small. The Cantarell oil field is located right in front of the world’s largest consumer market, the United States, so they ship it out as soon as they produce it.

Exxon, which acquired the Cantarell field stake, is the world’s leading veteran in crude oil production.

The Cantarell oil field has been running steadily.

The crude oil production from the oil field was checked every morning. It seemed that the West Sea oil field would have to increase production faster than initially planned.

The amount of crude oil demanded by China is increasing rapidly.

“China’s demand for crude oil is increasing rapidly.”

[As industrialization progresses, the demand for oil is rapidly increasing. The demand for coal is also increasing, but the demand for oil is increasing at a faster rate. The Daqing Oil Field, which used to produce the most oil in China, has dried up. The Shengli Oil Field and the Yuha Oil Field are not enough to meet the increasing domestic demand.]

“So you’re saying that economic development has picked up speed. Does that mean that the number of factories has increased?”

[More than ten thousand factories are being built every month, mainly in open areas along the coast.]

“Wow. It must be because of the cheap labor.”

The massive human resources were a symbol of the Chinese market.

It was popular for everyone to build factories in China in search of cheap labor.

As factories expanded, demand for oil also exploded.

“I don’t understand why everyone is building factories in China.”

[That’s because the Chinese authorities are being friendly to businessmen.]

“It’s no use being friendly in a communist dictatorship. You’re going to a place where you have to be mentally prepared to be robbed at any time when the political climate changes.”

I sighed involuntarily.

The future was bright for me. I would go to China, which seemed like a land of opportunity, with all my assets to do business, only to be stripped bare and return empty-handed. No, I would be lucky if I could just return safely.

China is by no means an easy place to do business.

Managing people became difficult and the government became even more unreliable.

I have two pipes from which money comes out.

One is the profit from the business. I cannot touch this.

The other is the profit from personal investment.

As the value of the stocks he held for a long time exceeded $12 billion, he borrowed money using them as collateral through a syndicated loan.

Since Citigroup could not possibly do it alone in lending such a huge sum of $8 billion, it joined forces with several banks to provide the loan.

And that money was still working hard to travel the world and raise chicks.

Although Goldman is a huge investment bank, it is difficult to tamper with the foreign exchange market.

How do you prevent investors from buying and selling foreign exchange on a regular basis without taking a fixed position?

Since there are many institutions that make speculative investments in the foreign exchange market, there is no one who can follow the investment of Ariel, which closes the position after making a profit of 1 to 2% in the short term and does not make much profit.

This investment was the one that really made money. When I calculated my monthly performance, I got a return of more than 20%.

This CEO has been coming to me more and more often about land contract issues.

After traveling back and forth to Texas, he signed a contract to purchase 120,000 acres of land in the Midland area for $78 million, declaring it as a ranch.

Since it is mostly a barren area with little rainfall, land prices were bound to be low. Midland, the central city of the Permian Basin, is a small city with a population of less than 100,000.

I just bought a new plane to visit here.

The 747 could not use Midland Airport, which has a small runway. After receiving a recommendation from someone around me, I leased a Bombardier BD-700 Global Express.

It was a 19-seater airplane that could travel 12,000 km. It was delivered quickly because it did not require any internal modifications.

Jamie tried to persuade me to supervise the remodeling project at his house, but I tried to persuade him not to, and went with him to Midland.

On the plane to Texas, Jamie grumbled to me.

“Why are you stopping me from seeing with my own eyes how the house is fixed?”

“It’s good to have the desire to see the house being fixed up yourself, but fixing a house makes you old. There are also many things that make you angry.”

Does anyone ever move according to my will?

Work should be left to the experts. If you interfere with each and every detail on site as the owner, it will become tiring to work on site.

“But I still want to see with my own eyes how to fix it.”

“And then if you come across something you don’t like, you fix it again?”

“Of course, when you fix something, you have to fix it properly.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to come out and travel together like this rather than being stuck at a dusty construction site while remodeling?”

“Huh, that’s why you want to be with me.”

As we talked, the atmosphere became strange.

“Yes, I want to be with you. We’re going to see the ranch land that we just signed a contract for, so Jamie should come with us.”

“How big is it?”

“Mr. President, how much is the land you purchased this time?”

I called the president who was standing far away so that he wouldn’t interrupt their conversation.

The chairman came and handed me some documents.

“This is a map showing the location of the land I recently purchased.”

The map showed five divided lands.

“There are small blank spaces here and there?”

“It takes a lot of time to find the owner of a vacant lot. That’s how it turned out because I bought the land that was put up for sale.”

“Wouldn’t it be a problem if I ranch?”

“I checked with the agent who brokered the land purchase, and there are no major problems.”

The main purpose of the land purchase was the shale beneath the ground, but for the time being, he intended to raise horses and cattle. He had no intention of expanding the scale, and the purpose of his trip to Midland was simply to establish a small ranch.

“Let’s go see the ranch that’s up for sale this time.”

“Where is the property in crisis?”

The chairman checked the location as I said and marked it on the map.

The area marked with a pen seemed larger than the area originally purchased.

“It seems like a pretty large ranch?”

“We are raising 2,500 cows on a ranch, so it’s not a large scale. It’s a medium-sized ranch.”

“Why is the ranch up for sale?”

“It’s the same everywhere. When a father who ran a ranch dies, his children have no interest in running the ranch, so it’s put up for sale. This is common in Texas.”

“They say that children like the city and don’t want to go live in the countryside.”

“If the property you inherit after your parents die is a ranch in the countryside, you can sell it and make some cash. That’s how people think these days.”

“It can be frustrating to go from living in the city to living in the countryside.”

“I can’t live there. I used to live in Midland for work when I was young, but it’s a rural area except for some parts of the city. Texas has a lot of people, but big cities like Dallas and Houston are all in Texas.

Isn’t it in the eastern region? The western part has a lot of wasteland, so it’s hard for people to live there. If you drive there, you only see a desolate landscape, and there are many places where people are sparsely populated, with only one car passing by all day. If you come from a crowded city and try to live in a place like this, you won’t be able to survive.”

At first, when I was talking about buying the land, he tried to dissuade me by saying that this place was a piece of shit, but it sure seemed desolate.

As we approached Midland, the scenery of North Texas came into view outside the window.

It didn’t seem as desolate as I first thought.

Although the vegetation was not lush, there was a fair amount of grass and trees.

“I didn’t think it was a desert because it was so desolate.”

“It’s hard to farm because there’s not enough water. But it’s not an area that doesn’t get much rain, so grass and trees do grow.”

Judy Jarrett, president of Local Realty, which brokers land sales, was so surprised to see someone exiting the gate that she let out a loud scream.

“Damn it! It’s not Jamie!”

The staff who were just passing the time at the airport were equally surprised. It was like a huge event had taken place when a world-class star suddenly appeared at a quiet rural airport.

A few airport staff gathered around after hearing that Jamie had come to visit.

Everyone was busy looking at Jamie, pretending nothing happened.

No one knew why Jamie had come to such a rural place, but Judy spotted a familiar figure waving from behind.

It was Daniel, who ran a real estate company in LA. I had known Daniel since he was young, when he worked for an oil company in Midland.

Judy, who had been out of it for a while due to the surprise appearance of a world-class star, regained her senses and returned to her professional real estate agent appearance.

“You just said that there were a lot of visitors?”

The broker was angry that he had not been told in advance that Jamie was coming, and grumbled to the boss.

It wasn’t real anger, it was just a mild complaint that’s common among friends.

“I apologize for visiting you so suddenly and without notice. I came to see the land I recently purchased.”

Judy was extremely surprised when she heard that I, who looked young, was the owner of the land.

“You’re the owner who bought the land? You look really young.”

“Our chairman is young, but he is extremely wealthy. He has oil fields in Korea and shares in the Cantarell oil field.”

Judy was insensitive to news from far away Korea, but she was well aware of news from nearby Mexico.

“Then this person is the Oriental who discovered the Cantarell oil field?”

“That’s right. For a while, Mexico was in an uproar because of that. He’s the one who saved the Cantarell oil field, which was thought to have dried up.”

“I heard about it too, but he’s much younger than I thought.”

“You shouldn’t say that out loud in front of a customer, right?”

“I wasn’t wrong. But how did Jamie get here?”

“When two people are dating.”

“Oh my God! Is that true?”

Judy and President Lee left the two of us alone and talked quietly for a while.

Jamie arrived at the hotel he had booked in advance and went up to his room to rest.

President Lee sighed as he sent Judy, who had come to pick him up at the airport, back to the office.

“Judy is a chatterbox, but she’s honest. Real estate transactions require honest brokers. Land transactions in particular are very tricky. Under American law, the transfer of property rights is called an equitable conversion, and the moment you sign the sales document, the ownership is considered transferred even if you haven’t paid the balance. Since all you have to do is sign it, you have to write down all the details in the sales document to avoid any problems later. If you meet a dishonest broker, you can have a really hard time. There are a lot of things about the land that you can’t find out about on paper.”

“Judy is a chatterbox, so word will spread quickly. Jamie is here to buy ranch land.”

That’s what I want. What if it was known that Jamie, a rich world star, bought a ranch here?

It was a way to quickly finish the land purchase, which was more sluggish than expected.

“Landowners willing to put their properties on the market will take action.”

“I don’t think all the landowners live here?”

“That’s right. There are many people I can’t contact.”

“What if the news spreads that Jamie has come here? It’ll make the buying process a lot easier.”

Buying rural land is never easy. Country people are very exclusive to outsiders. If you don’t have a big desire to sell, they will call out ridiculous prices.

“The land purchase price will go up.”

“That’s something I can easily afford. The problem is whether I can purchase a large enough piece of land. I don’t have much time.”

Although the area doesn’t receive much attention now because the methods for extracting shale gas are primitive and inefficient, mining technology is advancing faster than expected.