Chapter 11 Using American Oil to Earn American Money
() "Liu asked me to tell you when he came, don't doubt his correctness. If you are afraid of investment failure, you don't have to invest. But when oil comes out in the future, your shares will not be 20%, but 10%."
%." Schneider conveyed Liu Fu's words to David.
"But...then I'll think about it." David has been in business for more than ten years. Although he has never been exposed to the oil industry, he usually eats and drinks with those oil tycoons a lot, and he is deeply influenced by it.
You probably know that oil exploration is like buying a lottery ticket, and you don’t think about winning.
You can win the lottery, and the investment in oil exploration is huge. Moreover, Liu Fu has to buy land first and then explore. This approach is a waste of money in David's opinion. However, in view of Liu Fu's magic in David's heart, David decided that he still can't
I didn’t believe it at all. After all, Liu Fu’s medicine and refrigerator were things I had never seen before.
Regardless of whether David invested or not, the "Daqing Petroleum Company" was established in Austin, the capital of Texas, in April 1899, and immediately began to acquire oil and gas near Fort Worth in north-central Texas.
Land near West Pecos.
Ever since the earliest settlers in the United States entered Texas in the early 19th century, no one wanted anything to do with the western half of the state. The roughly 600-mile area stretching from Fort Worth to El Paso was basically
The plains were dry and lifeless, as flat as a frying pan in most places, and the heat was unbearable. After the Indians were driven away, people discovered that West Texas had little use except for grazing livestock.
, and successive years of drought have driven many small ranchers back to the East. In this era, people had no reason to go to West Texas, but there were various reasons for leaving there; in West Texas
, most counties have few paved roads and only one town, perhaps with a few hundred people. In the eyes of most Texans, this area is an unimaginable place, a hell filled with cattle.
When a man named "Daqing Petroleum Company" waved checks and dollars, found the remaining farmers and asked to acquire local land as European investors, these farmers rushed to sell their land.
No matter who they are or what they are doing, their primary goal is to escape from this damn hell as soon as possible. And the local county government
Fu, I also wanted to sell the county seat with only a few shabby hotels and taverns to this hapless European guy. Not only did he not stop him, he also gave the green light and all procedures were speedy and lenient.
After less than 3 months of running around, Schneider acquired the lease rights to nearly 800 square miles of land as roughly marked on the map, and spent less than 3 million U.S. dollars. "Daqing Petroleum Company" and Schneider not only became one of the leading companies in Texas
A large farmer, he has become a laughing stock among Texans.
After acquiring the land, Schneider, under David's introduction, acquired several teams of "night owl prospectors" that were on the verge of bankruptcy. Together with 100 technicians "hired" from Taiwan, Schneider began exploring for oil in a mighty manner.
"Night Cat Prospectors" are a small exploration team native to the United States. They are usually invested by a few or a dozen people. They use one or several drilling rigs in their hands to explore for local farmers who need exploration business.
Oil, in order to obtain a share of the profits. At that time, there were many such teams in Kansas, Oklahoma and other states in the United States. Of course, some were successful, but not many.
Exploration started in two areas at the same time. Some people were west of Fort Worth, while others went as far as the westernmost part of Texas, Pecos. Because it is dry and hot here, except for the Gobi, it is a desert, and the living conditions are extremely difficult.
Schneider spends more money on logistics than on personnel salaries.
In the end, David still couldn't fully trust Liu Fu and only invested 10% of the oil company's shares. In David's words, the other 10% was given to Liu Fu as a gift to congratulate him on becoming the president of Taiwan.
In April 1899, the "Daqing Oil Company" had drilled 11 dry wells in Fort Worth. Schneider was sitting in a dry and hot wooden room, soaked to the skin, listening to the rumble of the drilling rig outside.
He felt like he really fell into hell. There were no clear rivers, no lively streets, no cool sea breeze, and no charming prostitutes in this damn place. All there was was the sun, gravel, cow dung, and flies.
There are terrible high temperatures.
"This is the last well. If oil doesn't come out, the workers won't be willing to work anymore, boss." Sitting in the room with him was the leader of the drilling team. His original "Wildcat Exploration Team" had been sold to
Current boss, Schneider.
"It's not like I don't pay wages? Do I pay less wages?" Schneider shouted impatiently at the person in charge named Edgar.
"Oh, no, boss, you misunderstood. Your wages are very high and on time. I mean 12 wells don't produce oil. According to my experience, this place has no oil at all. You should tell you here
Call the guy with the oil too, and let's hang him in the desert together." Edgar explained nonchalantly.
"P's experience. If you have experience, your exploration team will not go bankrupt. Get out of here...get out!!!" Schneider became impatient and yelled at Edgar.
"Hiss...hiss..." As Schneider roared, a tearing sound suddenly sounded, and the wooden floor in the house trembled a little. Schneider quickly closed his mouth in surprise and looked at the front with exploratory eyes.
Get out of here, Edgar.
"Oh God...the oil is spraying...the oil is spraying..." Edgar didn't pay attention to Schneider's eyes. Experience told him that this was not Schneider's roar, but the oil well blowing out. He ignored Schneider.
, opened the door and rushed out.
"What did you say? Wait for me..." When Schneider heard the word "oil", he didn't care about the scorching sun outside, grabbed his hat and followed him out.
On the ground in the distance, several lonely derricks were standing on the dry land. From the farthest derrick, a black liquid was struggling to leave the ground and sprayed into the clear Texas sky.
