Chapter 9 Libya (1)

The June sun scorched the Libyan desert, creating waves of heat. Although it was not the hottest season yet, this level of heat was enough to make people feel uncomfortable.

Herman Walker was lying on the sand pile bored, watching the engineers and technical team members in the distance tinkering with the drilling rig in a serious manner, and he was very depressed. The young president of the United Group, who spent money like crazy, didn't know whose rumors he believed. He insisted that there was oil under the Libyan desert near the Gulf of Siirt. He excitedly signed a 4 million conditional exploration and production contract with Standard Oil. Then, Standard Oil gave an order, and Walker, who had just been married for less than 3 months and was not used to his wife hugging him, was forced to take a ship across the ocean to Italy, because he was a geological exploration engineer for Standard Oil in New York, specializing in finding oil.

Although he didn't believe that Libya had oil, and he didn't want to leave his newlywed wife, his boss had already paid him, so he had to go to Italy, so he had to come here unhappily.

He first rested in Italy for a few days, and then took a boat to Libya again under the escort of nearly a hundred armed personnel. Walker thought they were military personnel at first, but later he found out that they were not. They were all Roman guards belonging to the United Group, the fourth largest military armed group in Italy.

Speaking of Italy, this country is really weird, but in the area of ​​one state in the United States, there are actually four independent armed forces: the Italian Defense Forces, the Fascist Black Shirts, the King's Guards and the United Group Volunteers. In terms of the number of people, the Volunteers probably have the fewest people, but the small number of people does not mean poor combat effectiveness and equipment. At least everyone does not think that the King's Guards can beat the Volunteers. Because the Guards only have ground forces, while the Volunteers have all three services, including the army, navy, and air force!

In terms of equipment, the Volunteers were even more amazing: the complete bomber and fighter fleet was second only to the Italian and French air forces in the Mediterranean, and had more aircraft than the Greek Air Force, known as the second Italian air force; the ground forces had heavy artillery, tanks and armored vehicles, and the heavy artillery was a railway gun modified from a 203mm naval gun, which the Germans said had put a lot of effort into; even more amazing was that the Volunteers also had black paratroopers and the aircraft carrier Roma, which even the Italian Navy did not have, was dismantled and flattened to build a flight deck 25 meters wide and 168 meters long. Goering and Poti took 24 pilots to officially board the ship and began to perform test flight missions.

Although the rebuilt Roma retained its original name, its appearance had become unrecognizable, as if a layer of illegal buildings had been erected in the air on the main deck. What's more terrible is that these illegal buildings were also floating outside. From a distance, it looked like the Roma was carrying a huge bathtub, as ugly as it could be.

Walker had only seen it once, but he had deeply engraved this ugly appearance in his mind. He thought it was much uglier than the Langley remodeled by the US Navy, and it was not a product of the same level as the Lexington aircraft carrier currently under construction.

The military attachés of the United Kingdom, France and the United States in Italy also went to visit the United Group's "aircraft carrier". Contini was very generous and let them look at it at will. After watching it, they were deeply impressed. In the end, no one mentioned that this ship would occupy the tonnage of the Italian aircraft carrier: first, Italy has a tonnage of 60,000 tons of aircraft carriers, while the remodeled Roma is only 12,000 tons; second, this ship is really too inferior and too lo. If it is seriously raised, I am afraid that the Italians will laugh at the United Kingdom, France and the United States for making a fuss; third, they have also inquired that from dismantling to reconstruction, from sailors to drivers, all the projects were completed independently by the United Shipyard, without the intervention of the Italian Navy. None of the people seen on the ship have a formal Italian military establishment, and they are all employees of the United Group. How can they protest? There is no clause in the Washington Naval Treaty that prohibits large groups from building aircraft carriers, if this is considered an aircraft carrier.

Contini refused to admit that this was an aircraft carrier. The news published by Youth Daily on this matter is very interesting: ... Recently, the United Group, in line with the principle of making the best use of resources, gave full play to the ingenuity of the shipyard technicians and converted the abandoned Roma of the Navy into a mobile temporary offshore airport. This difficult name is more impressive, and the goods in the warehouse also show that the United Group does have the purpose of moving the airport. There are all United Express goods, Youth Weekly inventory, motorcycle parts, etc. There is no torpedo or bomb at all, and there is no artillery on the ship. If you insist on linking it to military purposes, the military attachés of the three countries themselves feel far-fetched.

Although Walker looked down on the garbage of the Roma, it does not mean that the Roma is really garbage. The pilots headed by Goering and Poti mastered the technology of empty take-off and landing in less than a month. Italy can be regarded as a carrier-based aviation force, even though Goering is a German and Poti has never served a day in the military. The title of reserve captain was obtained by Contini through the back door.

Prince Boti didn't care about military rank or not, all he wanted was to fly, fly from land, fly from sea, fly from deck, fly at night... The more challenging the subject, the more interested he was. In less than two years, he had made rapid progress and became an excellent pilot, while Contini, who studied at the same time as him, remained at the same level, and the gap between the two was getting bigger and bigger.

But Walker still has a keen eye. Although he thinks the Roma is rubbish, he never thinks that the Roman guards are rubbish. On the contrary, he can smell murderous aura from these guards. They are all well-trained elites. He dares to I bet that this kind of elite is also a first-class player in the US Army. The strange thing is, why does the Italian Army not want such talents and push them to the United Group? After thinking for a long time, I suddenly realized that the United Group was rich, and the Italian Army was afraid that it would not be able to support these gold-eating beasts.

At first he thought that sending so many guards was just making a fuss out of a molehill, but later he found out that it was not the case. The local tribal armed forces were very rampant. When he saw the exploration team carrying a large number of cars and equipment, he thought they were fat sheep and wanted to make a profit no matter what. At this time, the guards Their power came into play, and they could slaughter these tribal armed forces without mercy. The way they used the sword to kill made Americans with an adventurous spirit cheer.

As for whether doing this violates human rights, Americans don't care. Just as Indians are not considered human beings in their minds, can these ragged black African natives who look like they have lived in the Middle Ages be considered human beings?

However, fantasy cannot be used as food, nor can it replace science itself. No matter how rich you are, you cannot squeeze oil out of blank fields. This is Walker's conclusion for this exploration operation. In the past three months, Walker, who never believed that there was oil in Libya, led the exploration team to make dozens of attempts with high professional ethics, but all failed without exception. If there is no oil, how could anything else have oil?

Faced with repeated failures, the exploration team also became impatient, because this exploration did not make sufficient geological preparations in advance, and no oil seeps were found. It was entirely because of President Contini’s words, Americans of course I didn’t take it seriously, but the liaison officers sent from Italy were college graduates who had majored in petroleum and didn’t even have full beards. They believed in the president’s words and insisted that since the president said there was oil, there must be oil!

Walker sneered in his heart that they were all brainwashed people who could even say such things. No wonder the United Group could only send these fledgling college students to assume the role of other technical authorities. They must have backed away long ago.

Last Tuesday night, he had a quarrel with these liaisons. He suggested going to Benghazi to rest for a few days before taking action, but the liaisons insisted that they were all the backbone of the Youth League. Before leaving, Contini summoned them one by one. They were all looking forward to climbing up the ladder with these results, so how could they go to Benghazi to rest? As long as they take a break, with the lazy virtues of Americans, this team will definitely not be able to pull out, and then everyone will say goodbye. It’s a trivial matter that the CEO’s $1 million was wasted, but what should I do if my career path is gone? Why don’t liaisons need to be experienced veterans? It’s not like there are no old engineers in Italy. Is it really impossible to see the CEO’s intention of cultivating himself?

In the end, the two sides reached a compromise. The next three exploration points were designated by Italian liaison officers, and Walker would no longer intervene. If the three explorations failed, then everyone would stop talking and go to Benghazi to rest in despair.

The test drilling the day before yesterday failed. The depth was reached to 2,400 meters, but there was still no sign of oil production. Walker curled his lips in disapproval and said nothing in his mouth, but said in his heart: I knew it was like this.

Today is the second test. In the morning, the depth is said to have exceeded 1,800 meters. As long as it doesn't work after tonight, it can basically be judged as a failure. Looking at the busy crowd, Walker sighed and lay down at the entrance of the tent. Apart from counting camels, he only had the pleasure of lying on the sand. Alas, I don’t know how the little sweetheart at home is doing. Will he be so lonely that he cuckolds himself? ?

While he was thinking wildly, he suddenly noticed raindrops falling on the tent and his face, making them wet...

Is it raining? Is it really a rare thing for it to rain in the desert?

If you think about it carefully, why is the rain black?

After taking a closer look, he was convinced that these damn raindrops were clearly caused by the eruption of crude oil and fell here.

Out of oil? He was stunned for a moment, and he seemed to hear loud cheers in his ears.

Walker's face was startled, and he gently stretched out his tongue and slowly licked the crude oil sprayed on the tent, then carefully savored it and it was not astringent! Not bitter! This is a damn sign of high-quality oil!

On May 25, 1925, the first oil well in Libya was discovered, spewing out low-sulfur and high-quality crude oil. In the next 15 days, the exploration team found two more high-yield oil wells nearby. According to estimates, these The storage capacity of one piece is no less than 200 million barrels (about 30 million tons), and the recoverable volume can reach at least 40%!