Phoenix Mountain, less than 50 kilometers away from Port Edward, has the largest oil storage base on the east coast of Africa. It can store 1.5 million cubic meters of crude oil, which translates to about 9.4 million barrels or 1.48 million tons.
There is no oil storage base of this size in the UK, but there are eleven in southern Africa, eight of which are concentrated in Nyasaland, Rhodesia, and the Transvaal. p>
Of course, because the strategic reserve plan has just been launched, most of the oil storage bases have not yet been built. Only Port Edward and Cape Town are actually put into use, and other oil storage bases are still under construction.
It was only after Roque introduced Viscount Glaston that he realized how important Port Elizabeth was to southern Africa.
Although internal combustion engine technology has progressed, internal combustion engines have become more and more advanced and their status has become more and more important. They have gradually surpassed steam engines and become the real heart of industry.
An important problem brought about by the popularization of internal combustion engines is that the importance of oil is gradually increasing. The situation in the UK and southern Africa is similar. There is almost no oil in the UK. Southern Africa now has oil from Port Elizabeth, which has solved the energy crisis, while the UK
The local oil supply also relies on the oil fields in Romania, and it faces the threat of Germany at all times, so Viscount Glaston is particularly concerned about Port Elizabeth.
"A super-large oil field was discovered in Port Elizabeth. The daily output of oil has now reached 50,000 barrels (the previous statement was incorrect, it was 20,000 barrels per day). However, Port Elizabeth is not safe. As the importance of oil continues to increase, the Ottoman Empire's
Port Elizabeth is coveted, the Egyptian governor also wants to take back Port Elizabeth, and some local tribes also want to share the profits from the oil. In short, Adan Company is in a difficult situation now." Of course Roque still complained, but the actual situation is definitely not that serious.<
/p>
Although the Ottoman Empire is covetous of Port Elizabeth's oil, compared with Port Elizabeth, Italy's threat to Tripolitania is more serious for the Ottoman Empire, so the Ottoman Empire signed a supplementary agreement with Nyasaland to transfer the Persian Gulf coast to
More land sold to former umbrella company.
After the Governor of Egypt learned about the discovery of oil in Port Elizabeth, he once intended to jointly develop the oil in Port Elizabeth with the Umbrella Company, but Roque firmly refused. There was too much oil underground in Port Elizabeth, and Roque would never allow others to get involved.
As for the local indigenous tribes Roque mentioned, Port Elizabeth now nominally owns only 37,000 square kilometers of land, but actually controls more than 50,000 square kilometers of land. Within a 300-kilometer radius around Port Elizabeth, the indigenous tribes
The tribe either moved away or disappeared mysteriously, unable to survive at all.
"Locke, if possible, you can send oil to the mainland through the Suez Canal. I guarantee that the local businessmen will give you a good price." Viscount Glaston also coveted Port Elizabeth. No oil has been found in Port Elizabeth.
Before, many British people, including Viscount Glaston, did not even know that Port Elizabeth existed. Now with the discovery of oil, the name Port Elizabeth is gradually becoming known.
"Your Majesty the Governor, there are eleven strategic reserve warehouses in Southern Africa, with a total designed capacity of 21 million cubic meters. If calculated based on the current oil production in Port Elizabeth, even if all the oil is sent to Southern Africa, these warehouses will have to be filled.
It will take at least seven years." Roque was noncommittal. With the war imminent, Southern Africa still had to protect itself first. Roque would not consider selling oil to Europe until the oil reserves in Southern Africa reached a safe level.
Of course, the data Roark told Viscount Glaston was also an ambush. Port Elizabeth's current daily oil output is 100,000 barrels, not 50,000. At this rate, before the outbreak of the world war, Roark
There is enough time to fill the strategic reserve warehouses in Southern Africa.
"Seven years is too long. Do you think the arms race can last for seven years? It doesn't take seven years, at most five years, London and Berlin will go bankrupt, and then a war will be needed to end it all." Viscount Glaston
After estimating Germany's strength, Britain has more colonies and can persist for five years, while Germany can only persist for three years at most.
Three years later, Germany needed a war to test the effectiveness of the arms race.
"I still have more than a dozen oil exploration teams in Port Elizabeth looking for oil. I hope that oil production will further increase-" Roque gave an illusory promise. Even if he sells the oil to Europe, he can't sell it at a high price.
It has to wait until the war reaches a certain stage and all parties are exhausted before Southern Africa can enter the battlefield in time.
Only then can you gain the maximum benefit.
"If a dozen oil exploration teams are not enough, add more manpower. If a dozen is not enough, we will have fifty. If fifty is not enough, we will have a hundred. No matter what, we must find more oil." Viscount Glaston did not care about the cost, although Elizabeth
Oil was discovered in Hong Kong, but no European companies have gone to the peninsula to search for oil. If the specific location of the oil field is not known, this aimless search will undoubtedly be like finding a needle in a haystack. The cost of drilling an oil well is huge. If nothing is gained, all the money will be lost.
No return.
Not everyone has such courage as Roque. Roque also knew that there was oil in Port Elizabeth, so he would invest huge sums of money. Otherwise, Roque would not dare to do it.
"It's useless. Even if we can find more oil, if it goes beyond Port Elizabeth, the oil still doesn't belong to us." Rock set a trap for Viscount Glaston.
"Who does it belong to? The Ottoman Empire? Or the indigenous tribes on the peninsula? Whoever finds it belongs to whom! If anyone has any objections, then shut up!" Viscount Glaston is very domineering. This is the attitude that the governor of southern Africa should have.
.
Of course, shutting up is not about presenting facts and reasoning. Viscount Glaston will not reason with the indigenous tribes. Physical destruction is the only solution once and for all. Americans will not reason with the Indians, and the result is the current United States.<
/p>
"What if it's the Ottoman Empire?" Rock is not used to this way of doing things, it is simply too simple and crude.
But Rock likes it very much.
"The same goes for the Ottoman Empire. Now the Ottoman Empire can't even deal with the Italians. I guess the Ottoman Empire won't exist for too long. Aren't you the best at this? Arm those indigenous tribes and let them cause trouble for the Ottoman Empire.
Just wait and pick the fruit." Viscount Glaston is really not ironic. There are so many white people in southern Africa. Why does the British government look at Rock, a Chinese, in a different light?
Of course, it is because Rock can bring benefits to the British Empire, not because of his skin color. The Boers are also white, but if they offend the British interests, the British will still kill them.
"I'll try -" Roark snickered. Viscount Glaston indeed knew Roark very well. In fact, Viscount Glaston didn't even need to remind him, Roark was doing the same thing.
It is actually very simple to arm the indigenous tribes of the peninsula. The nomads originally advocated force, but they do not have advanced weapons and still use scimitars and spears, so they cannot compete with the Ottoman Empire troops equipped with advanced weapons.
After the Umbrella Company bought Port Elizabeth, the Nyasaland Military Industrial Group openly put all kinds of weapons on the shelves of stores in Port Elizabeth. It didn't matter if they didn't have pounds or rands. The nomads still had some savings, including a lot of gold and camels.
, if you want gold, you can go to Rand Bank to exchange it first, if you want camels, you can sell them directly to Adan Company, and then you can buy various weapons including general-purpose machine guns.
Of course, because the general machine gun is a bit expensive, no one is willing to buy it, because the bullets are also very expensive, so the best seller is the export-type Lee Enfield, and the Nyasaland Military Industrial Group has one for export.
The ex-factory price of a Model Lee Enfield is only R35, and it costs R120 in Port Elizabeth.
Like to buy or not.
So far, in just one year, the Nyasaland Military Industrial Group has made more than one million rand in Port Elizabeth, which is more than the Umbrella Company and the Adang Company. The local indigenous tribes of the peninsula have received
With advanced weapons, they were more motivated to launch attacks on other indigenous tribes. Facing the Ottoman Empire's troops, they finally dared to fight head-on.
While openly selling weapons, Li De also took frequent actions after arriving in Port Elizabeth. The most important thing was of course to find a suitable spokesperson for Southern Africa.
This spokesperson is called Ali Rashid.
Ali Rashid was born in the declining Rashid family, which once controlled Riyadh, the largest city in the peninsula at that time. Unfortunately, Riyadh at that time was only about one square kilometer in area, which was really small and pitiful. p>
About ten years ago, the Rashid family lost Riyadh in a tribal conflict. Most of the family members were killed in the battle. Ali Rashid was the last member of the Rashid family. Reed took Ali from a slave in Port Elizabeth.
·Rashid found out, and then Ali Rashid became the current patriarch of the Rashid family.
It's very pitiful to say that Ali Rashid is the only one in the Rashid family now.
But it doesn’t matter. It’s easy to form a family in the peninsula. Just buy slaves directly from the victor of the tribal conflict. This is exactly what Li De is best at, so Ali Rashid soon had four wives.
With more than 500 loyal and brave slave warriors, these slave warriors are now being trained in the New Cape of Good Hope. In a few months, they will be able to fight on the battlefield with Ali Rashid.
There are very few tribes with 500 warriors in the peninsula. Even Ali Rashid cannot tell how many people there are in the peninsula now. The larger tribes only have 300 to 500 warriors at most.
The total population is only one or two thousand, so it is easy for the Rashid family to grow and annex a few tribes.
"Have you already started doing this?" Viscount Glaston was very sensitive and immediately got some information from Roque's expression.
"Of course, a chaotic peninsula is more in our interests. I am going to foster a spokesperson on the peninsula and use this spokesperson to eliminate those enemies. Whether they are indigenous tribes or the Ottoman Empire, they will eventually disappear from the peninsula." Rock is ambitious.<
/p>
"What's on the peninsula? It's full of deserts, and the few oases are not worth developing. This doesn't seem to be what you're interested in." Viscount Glaston thought thoughtfully, Roque, and other Chinese people's opinions on the land.
Everyone in southern Africa knows about desire, but the Chinese only want land suitable for farming. Many of the lands clearly have no development value in the eyes of white farmers, but in the hands of the Chinese they can grow crops, and the yield is not low. p>
Compared with the land in southern Africa, the land on the peninsula does not have much development value. Food cannot grow in the desert. In the view of Viscount Glaston, the discovery of oil in Port Elizabeth is an exception and does not mean that the entire peninsula contains underground resources.
Rich in oil.
In the final analysis, it is still information asymmetry.
"Your Majesty the Governor, if you have time, you should go to Port Elizabeth to see it. You know that Port Elizabeth is located in the Mesopotamia, and the conditions nearby are quite good. A few decades ago, there was fertile land for cultivation in Port Elizabeth, and it was also available.
There was enough water for irrigation, and there were even forests in Port Elizabeth at that time. It is because of the disorderly development and devastating damage over the years that the land around Port Elizabeth has gradually become desertified. Port Elizabeth is now different from before.
, Adan Company requires everyone in Port Elizabeth to plant twelve trees every year, and to ensure the survival of the trees. Believe it or not, give me ten years, and the forests of Port Elizabeth will reappear!" Rock was confident that once
Land desertification is a major problem in the world. Everyone believes that land desertification is irreversible, but this conclusion was overturned by the later Chinese. This is much more useful than shouting a few slogans.
“You are really——” Viscount Glaston shook his head speechlessly, and really couldn’t figure out why Rock did this: “If you have time, you might as well think about how to drive away the Portuguese and Belgians, and take a look at West Africa and the Congo Free State.
Even Madagascar, the land there is not more valuable than the land near Port Elizabeth?"
Before the earth-shaking changes occurred in Portuguese East Africa, probably no one thought so.
The current situation in Portuguese East Africa has given people more ideas.
Yes, the colonial order established under the leadership of Britain and France cannot be changed. Without legitimate reasons, no matter how weak Portugal and Belgium are, Britain has no reason to attack Portuguese West Africa and the Congo Free State.
The situation is different now. Southern Africa did not attack Portuguese East Africa, but most of Portuguese East Africa became part of Southern Africa, and a small part became the Kingdom of Mozambique. The Portuguese no longer exist in East Africa.
This is what Viscount Glaston meant. Since Roque can subvert Portuguese East Africa, he should also be able to subvert Portuguese West Africa and the Congo Free State. This is not difficult for Roque.