As a person from later generations, Li Xuan naturally has a relatively basic understanding of petroleum. After all, later generations belong to a world with extremely advanced information. Even if you don't actively search for information yourself, you will still receive countless information every day.
Some people say that people in later generations are exposed to more information every day than people in ancient times received in an entire year.
This statement is not necessarily accurate, but to a certain extent it can still reflect the huge gap in knowledge between modern people and ancient people.
Li Xuan was just an ordinary person in later generations. He didn't know much about the mining industry, no matter whether it was oil, coal or iron ore. Not to mention professional, he couldn't even be considered an amateur.
But he still knows that there are a lot of coal bosses in Shanxi, there are a lot of minerals in the Northeast, and there is a large iron mine in Dangtu.
We also know about the Daqing Oilfield, and we also know that this oilfield was not even discovered by the Japanese until after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Before the development of the Daqing Oilfield, China had always been an oil-poor country with only a few small oilfields.
Li Xuan doesn't know about the others of these small oil fields, but I have heard of the name Yumen Oilfield. This oil field was one of the more important early oil fields in modern China.
The Yumen Oilfield is located in Suzhou, Gansu Province, today in the Tang Empire, to the west of Jiayuguan.
According to the information of later generations, he reminded the Royal Petroleum Company not to mess around and go directly to Suzhou, Gansu, where there was oil.
After an investigation by the Royal Petroleum Company, they discovered an area west of Jiayuguan. People were indeed extracting and using oil through indigenous methods, and they immediately sent people to conduct detailed surveys.
Li Xuan actually did not blame the Royal Petroleum Company for its slow progress in oil exploration and extraction.
He knows very well that until drilling technology reaches a certain level, there is no hope of developing several important oil fields in the Huaxia region. At least for a long time in the future, Datang itself should be a veritable oil-poor area.
The source of oil should focus on Southeast Asia, West Asia and the Americas.
As for the local oil production, it can only be used as an embellishment, but if you want to develop a large-scale oil industry, don't expect it.
However, extracting oil outside the mainland will involve a lot of other problems, so Li Xuan will not take the initiative to promote it on a large scale for the time being, but will sit back and watch the Royal Petroleum Company develop on its own.
After all, the petroleum industry has just started. Currently, the practical application of petroleum is just to refine kerosene, and the biggest application of kerosene is for lighting.
Although the lighting market is not small, there are many substitutes. It is not that easy to completely open up the market for kerosene.
Therefore, Li Xuan's short-term expectation for Royal Petroleum Company is to first improve the relevant technologies of the petroleum industry, such as surveying, mining, refining, transportation, etc., and at the same time develop the kerosene lamp market in the process.
With the gradual development of the kerosene lamp market, the demand for oil will gradually increase, and then the power of capital will be used to increase the exploration and development of oil. At that time, it will be the time to develop oil outside the country on a large scale.
However, the Holy Emperor Li Xuan did not have high demands on Royal Petroleum Company in the short term, but Royal Petroleum Company itself was anxious.
To be more precise, the company's middle and senior management are worried!
Steady and steady sounds very safe, but a few years have passed in the blink of an eye. If they still haven't made any achievements, it will definitely not be good for future development.
Whether they are people who want to enter the official career or people who plan to continue to make great achievements in the business world, they all hope to make achievements in Royal Petroleum Company and prove their abilities and value.
Therefore, although the Royal Petroleum Company made slow progress in the first half year, they are now very ruthless. Just for the research and development institution they established, they are ready to spend hundreds of thousands to develop more advanced surveying, development, and refining technologies.
Poaching people from the Royal Institute of Technology and poaching people from other places to strengthen their research and development capabilities shows that they are already anxious and ready to spend money.
When the Royal Petroleum Company set up multiple laboratories for research and development, a petroleum survey team from their company also arrived in Suzhou by train.
When they arrived at Jiayuguan Railway Station and got off the train, they did not see the chilling atmosphere of a major border defense town. Instead, they saw peace!
There are quite a few troops stationed here, but not as many as expected. There are only more than 3,000 troops stationed here.
However, they saw many forts, and people familiar with them said: "These are the forts built in the early years. What you see now are only a small part. In its heyday, our forts in Jiayuguan were equipped with hundreds of weapons."
There’s a cannon!”
In the early years, Jiayuguan was an important border defense town for the Tang Army in the northwest. It was also a forward base and a transfer station for troops and supplies. Its strategic position was extremely important, and the garrison strength once reached more than 250,000.
After all, Suzhou Jiayuguan was an important border defense town in the past. Whether it was during the Ming Dynasty or the first twenty years of the Tang Empire, it had always been a border town and had always accumulated heavy troops.
However, after the Tang Empire entered the Western Regions and even Central Asia, the entire Western Regions, not to mention Suzhou, had actually become a hinterland.
Even Yili Prefecture, an important border defense town that received much attention in the early years, is actually now only used as a logistics transfer station and a logistics base for border troops to rest and replenish.
As for the focus of military defense and strategic transfer stations, they have already been moved to Baal City, Tash City and other cities on the eastern edge of Central Asia.
Among them, Bar City is located at the southern end of Lake Balkhash. It is a city built on the lakeside, or more simply, a huge military camp. More importantly, it is the end point of the Northwest Railway, as well as the Central Asian Railway and the South Asian Railway.
The starting point of the railway.
Among them, the Central Asia Railway, that is, the railway line built to the west and to the northern end of the Caspian Sea, is also the strategic armament railway that the Army attaches most importance to at present.
To the south, the South Asia Railway heading to the city of Tash was still relatively important two years ago. However, as the Tatars took the initiative to abandon the southeastern Caspian Sea area and instead focused on defending the northeastern Caspian Sea area, the importance of this area naturally decreased.
Rapidly declining, so railway line construction is progressing slowly.
Nowadays, in the Tang Empire, Baal City, Tash City and other cities in Central Asia can be regarded as border towns. As for several cities in Tumi Province in the Western Regions.
For example, although there are still many soldiers garrisoning the three major cities of Ili City, Tubo City, and Hami City, they have become ordinary cities. The soldiers garrisoned are for precaution, and their main tasks have become
Provide logistical support, etc.
As for the cities in Gansu Province further back, they have directly become the so-called northwest hinterland.
There is no way, who knows that the nearest Tatars are more than 2,000 kilometers away from Jiayuguan!
If the distance of two thousand kilometers is not enough for the Jiayuguan area to be called the hinterland, how can you let those countries with a land area of only a few hundred kilometers survive?
The Suzhou Jiayuguan Pass in the northwest hinterland gave the Royal Petroleum Company survey team a small surprise.
However, they were not in much mood to visit the majesty of Jiayuguan and the relics left by years of war. Instead, they were busy unloading many of their survey equipment from the train.
Although there are not many people in their survey team, only more than 40 people, in fact, more than 30 of the more than 40 people here are the main technical backbones, and more than ten are in the logistics department.
Administrative personnel, as for the labor required for the actual survey, will naturally be hired locally.
Before the survey, the manager Kong Jiayu who led the team had to contact the local government office!
Because the large area they plan to survey is still official land, and official land will naturally not allow a commercial company to survey and develop it at will.
Kong Jiayu's task this time was not only to lead a team to survey and exploit oil, but also to sign an agreement with the local government to purchase land.
Suzhou officials had long received a notification from Jinling City that the Royal Petroleum Company was preparing to come to their Suzhou to explore and exploit oil.
When they first received the news, the local officials didn't really care much because most of them didn't even know what oil was. But when they learned that the Royal Petroleum Company actually planned to invest tens of thousands of yuan or more here.
After a lot of money is spent on exploration and extraction of oil.
They are the ones who know that there is flowing black gold mine underground.
The amount of oil has not yet been determined. The Royal Petroleum Company plans to invest tens of thousands of dollars in surveying and gradual extraction. If there is more oil, wouldn't it be possible to attract hundreds of thousands or even more investments in minutes?
?
How many job opportunities can such a large investment bring to the local area? How much tax revenue can it bring, and how much political achievements can it bring?
After knowing this, the local officials in Suzhou took it very seriously!
It depends on whether he can turn over and become the master, develop Suzhou, and get promoted and make a fortune.
So when Kong Jiayu went to the state government office to sign a relevant cooperation agreement with the local government office, he saw that the magistrates of Suzhou were greeting him at the door in person.
As soon as he saw the person, he took the initiative to greet him with a smile on his face, and asked Kong Jiayu and others if they had a hard time on the road. That kind of concern surprised Kong Jiayu, who had had many interactions with officials.
Kong Jiayu is not a technician. Although he is the captain of the survey team, he is mainly responsible for administrative management and other matters. To put it bluntly, he is here to be a housekeeper, serving the technicians and taking care of all troubles.
The technicians in the survey team are all very noble and arrogant. They are not willing to deal with ordinary unruly people and officials. They are all uncles.
The Royal Petroleum Company also spent a lot of money to poach them. It sent a manager to be their chief steward, and it was naturally a trivial matter to provide logistical support.
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