Chapter 750: Britain is in Crisis

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Building a country is a major matter that requires investment in many aspects, and Qusayla has brought in various weapons production lines and established military industrial bases, but the most basic thing, the supply of electricity, has become a difficult problem in front of us. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info≦≧

Only then did Qusay remember that Gorbachev had expected a power shortage in Iraq by sending the nuclear power plant to himself!

While Qusay was inspecting various places, oil prices, which had been rising, began to fall gradually.

When it first went up, it was very fast, but when it went down, it wasn't that fast. Because, the current market is still in short supply.

However, countries around the world have finally begun to slow down, and they see hope that as long as oil prices stop rising and can be gradually lowered, they can get rid of all kinds of problems caused by high oil prices.

After more than 10 days of waiting, just when the oil price has fallen back to more than 50 US dollars a barrel, Saudi Arabia issued a new statement, after half a month of intense maintenance, most of Saudi Arabia's oil facilities, have returned to normal, in order to help countries get rid of the trouble of high oil prices, Saudi Arabia decided to immediately increase production, first increase production by 2 million barrels per day, and then can be maintained to an increase of 4 million barrels. ≦≧

Saudi Arabia's voice finally caused oil prices to begin to fall rapidly.

As the largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia has a very flexible oil industry, and under normal circumstances, it is normal to increase production by 2 million barrels, and it is possible to increase production by 4 million barrels with some efforts.

Right now. Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the two most important oil producers. The increase in oil production is more than enough to compensate for the reduced exports of Mexico and Venezuela. Moreover, there is a surplus part. Moreover, not only Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other countries have also responded to OPEC's call. Started to increase oil production.

Oil, which had been in short supply for a long time, began to gradually meet the needs of the world, and moreover, began to have surpluses.

When 85 years come. Oil prices have fallen to $30 a barrel. ≦≧

At this time, Britain finally began to be depressed.

In London, England, a building built on a small marshland, with an octagonal dome on the top, and a simple black wooden door on the front, decorated with white Arabic numerals "10", has become a well-known mark, here, is 10 Downing Street. It is the center of political power in the United Kingdom.

10 Downing Street is the Prime Minister's official residence and the Prime Minister's office. The Prime Minister's secretaries, assistants and advisers all work in the Prime Minister's residence. The Prime Minister works with his cabinet and think tanks at 10 Downing Street every day to set policy, while the general confidential departments, the Parliament, the Treasury and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are only minutes away from 10 Downing Street, making it easy for the Prime Minister to obtain information and contacts.

Buckingham Palace, where the British monarch lives, is nearby, and the Prime Minister can regularly visit Buckingham Palace to report to the monarch. There are different meeting rooms and dinner halls in Downing Street 10, where the Prime Minister often meets with leaders from all walks of life and countries. As such, 10 Downing Street symbolizes the heart of the British government and one of the core powers of British politics.

Although the empire on which the sun once never sets has fallen, but. ≦≧ Britain is still a big country in the world, and being able to become the prime minister of this big country has a lot of responsibility while holding great power.

In one of the important conference rooms, British Prime Minister Margaret Hilda Thatcher, with short blond hair, was listening to a meeting between Energy Secretary Webber and Industry Secretary Schoen and other aides, and the atmosphere was very heavy.

"Now, the group of guys in the Middle East has been frantically increasing crude oil production, which has led to the continuous decline in international oil prices, and just this morning, the international crude oil futures market has exceeded $30 and dropped to $26.7." Energy Secretary Webb spoke first.

Mrs. Thatcher listened to Weber's speech and realized that the matter was getting worse and worse.

"Our North Sea oil fields have been expanding on a large scale, because we need the oil industry, to increase our income, before the eighties, we were still oil importers, but, within a few years, we have become an oil exporter, the North Sea oil fields in our country's economic growth, the contribution is very huge, especially in the second half of last year, due to the crisis in the Middle East, the price of crude oil has risen significantly, we have increased income. ≦≧" said Industry Secretary of State Schoen: "At that time, when the price was at its highest, close to eighty dollars a barrel, we made a lot of profits, and, more importantly, we arranged a lot of jobs, oil extraction, chemicals, which drove our employment level, reduced the unemployment rate, and allowed us to have a great improvement in the economic situation in the last year." ”

"However, those guys in the Middle East, under pressure from the United States, finally began to increase crude oil production, and the market has long been saturated, which has led to the decline in crude oil prices, and the United States is comfortable, and we are not happy, especially, those guys in the Middle East, I don't know for what purpose, have dropped to twenty-six dollars a barrel, and they are still increasing production, do they want to lose money?" One of the staff members said dissatisfied.

"The oil producing areas in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and other countries, their oil fields are buried in shallow underground, even if the depth of the tap water well, can produce crude oil, their extraction cost is very low," the energy minister said: "Even if the world oil price drops to ten dollars a barrel, they can still make money, we have done calculations, for example, Saudi Arabia's extraction costs, at most no more than four dollars per barrel, and the onshore oil fields of other OPEC members, the extraction cost does not exceed six dollars per barrel." ≦≧However, our North Sea oil fields are exploited in the North Sea with complex climatic conditions, and the oil is buried under the riverbed of several thousand meters, and the cost of extracting each barrel is 11 US dollars, and our oil has to be transported to the transportation costs, and no foreign oil tanker will load oil on the North Sea oil wells with high winds and waves, and the cost of each barrel will have to be increased by three US dollars. Therefore, when the international oil price drops to $30, we are already very dangerous, and now, when it drops to $26, our profits are already on the verge of being terrible, and if it is further reduced to $20, or even $15, or even $10, we will have to operate at a loss, but OPEC countries can still make a profit. ”

Mrs. Thatcher's face was clouded, and her teeth were clenched, thinking that although she was a woman, when Mrs. Thatcher was angry, it was very terrible.

"Those guys, most likely, are coming at us." Margaret Thatcher said.

Although Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were the first to provoke, but after Saudi Arabia was unable to complete the plan to increase production, it was Iraq that took the initiative to take over the flag, and Iraq did not intend to join, but after the espionage incident between Iraq and Britain, the relationship between the two countries quickly fell into a trough, and Qusay, it was at that time that announced that Iraq would maintain the world economy and began to increase oil production in large quantities.

Qusay's methods were so vicious, especially since he also contacted Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, all the oil-producing countries in the Middle East, and maintained good relations with Iraq, and they united against the British oil industry.

They do not hesitate to cause losses due to the fall in oil prices, and such a blow to the British oil industry is simply hooliganism!

"So, there's no other way for us?" Margaret Thatcher asked.

"We can only wait, wait for those guys in the Middle East, who can't bear the low oil prices first, reduce their oil exports, and let the world's oil prices return to stability." said the Minister of Energy.

Await? That's a no-no!

"So, if we wait until the price of oil drops to $10, do we have to wait?" Margaret Thatcher said, "We must take the initiative to find a solution to the problem!" ”

"Perhaps, we can go to the United States for help, increase production and reduce prices, is carried out under the pressure of the United States, now the world's oil prices, has already fallen below the bottom line of the Americans' hearts, prices should be stabilized, can not be lowered, let OPEC return to the original proportion of oil supply." A staff member said.

Just the day before yesterday, the US ambassador to Iraq was again received by the Iraqi president, who said that the Iraqi president promised that oil prices would continue to fall, and the United States was very happy, so the Americans absolutely do not want oil prices to rise again." said the Minister of Energy.

Although Britain and the United States have good relations and are hardcore allies, the United States is also absolutely determined to abandon Britain when it comes to its core interests; the United States hoped to import crude oil from Britain at a low price, but Britain did not agree, and now, Britain begs the United States to do so, and the Americans probably will not agree.

"We should express a serious protest to OPEC countries and focus on putting pressure on Saudi Arabia, for example, to re-examine the Tornado fighter jets ordered by Saudi Arabia, as long as Saudi Arabia stops increasing crude oil production, then world oil prices will definitely rise." A staff member said.

As soon as he finished speaking, Xiuen interrupted him: "That's absolutely impossible, those guys from BAE, how much effort did it take to pass the arms sales project to Saudi Arabia, if we use this pressure, I'm afraid Saudi Arabia will take the initiative to give up this contract and turn to other products, such as Iraq's own production of fighters!" ”

The Tornado fighter is a variable-swept wing fighter jointly developed by the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, except for the equipment of their three research and development countries, the export is dismal, and it is only sold to Saudi Arabia.

Is there no solution to this crisis in the mighty Britain? Looking at these aides of her own, Margaret Thatcher was very upset.