Chapter 1017: Participate in the fight

The coastline in East China is winding and long, but the terrain in East China is flat, mostly river alluvial plains, and the offshore is filled with shallow water with silt stuffed.

Generally speaking, there is no deep-water port resources without mountains. The deep-water port resources in East China are extremely scarce. Wenzhou City, East Zhejiang is also located in the uplift section of the eastern Zhejiang platform landform, so it has excellent deep-water port resources.

Although there is no suitable deep-water channel along the Xinting Coast, there is a section of platform in the south of Xinting slid into the trough, which is intermittent, forming an island near the sea. The island is immersed under the sea water, which is a steep mountainous landform. In addition, a special tidal waterway is formed near the mouth of the Xiaojiang River, making Xinting's deep-water channel resources better than Wenzhou.

Wenzhou Deepwater Port can be built along the coast, and Xinting's deepwater port must be built on an island several kilometers away from the shore. On the one hand, the channel needs to be rebuilt between the island and the land. On the other hand, the port development land for the island is extremely limited, and large-scale reclamation projects are required to obtain development land.

The construction cost of island land passages is high, but no matter how high it is, it is limited. It is beyond people's imagination to invest 1.8 billion in a cross-sea bridge, but the even higher is the land reclamation project.

In 1999, the domestic industrial land prices vary from place to place, but in order to attract investment, all regions have introduced extremely preferential policies. The actual transfer price of industrial land is less than 100,000 yuan per mu, and most of them are about 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan. However, the cost of land reclamation in the land reclamation project is relatively low in the tidal flats and sea land construction costs are also more than 150,000 yuan per mu.

Dongshan Port Economic Development Zone has to surround 400 square kilometers of tidal flats as industrial reserve land, and the total investment of this part alone is close to 100 billion yuan. Such high cost is also the fundamental reason why Dongshan Port has been unable to make up its mind to build it for more than ten years.

With the development of the domestic economy and the increasing dependence on foreign trade, especially foreign energy and industrial raw materials, the ocean shipping is mostly transported by giant ships above 100,000 tons, and the advantages of deep-water seaport resources have gradually become prominent, and the construction of Dongshan Island ports has gradually gained the advantage of marginal benefits.

The first phase of the steel industry base with a scale of tens of millions of tons is only four square kilometers, and the investment is more than one billion yuan. It is necessary to acquire land in other places and pay 200 million yuan to the local government. Even if it is quite polite, compared with the advantages provided by the deep-water seaport in raw material transportation costs after completion, the more than one billion construction costs paid at this time are nothing.

Such a simple and clear cost comparison is also applicable to heavy-duty refining and chemical companies.

The resources of deep-water seaports in East China are limited, and this region will have a very serious dependence on crude oil imports in the future. The limited resources of deep-water seaports are naturally the focus of petrochemical giants. Whoever can complete the industrial layout in these ports in advance will have a natural advantage in the market in this region.

Wenzhou Port is the territory of Sinopec. Sinopec has built an 8 million tons of refining base in Wenzhou, which also gives Sinopec a strong advantage in the East China market. It is impossible for CNPC and CNOOC to squeeze into Wenzhou in East Zhejiang. The newly added Xinting Dongshan Port is the focus of the changes in the power of the East China oil market, and the East China region is the most important area for domestic oil consumption.

When Zhang Ke was considering promoting the construction of Dongshan Island, he never had any concerns about not attracting investment in heavy refining and oil refining projects. When planning the Dongshan Port Economic Zone, steel, shipbuilding and refining were planned as the pillar industries of Dongshan Port.

In 1998, the total crude oil import volume reached 40 million tons. Due to the increasing stability of domestic crude oil extraction, it is difficult to increase significantly in a short period of time. In the future, every new oil demand in the market will almost rely on imports. Experts at home and abroad predict that China's annual total oil import will reach 180 million tons by 2020, and predict that the crude oil price will stabilize between US$22 and US$24 per ton in the future. Zhang Ke knew that by the end of 2007, domestic imported oil would approach 200 million tons, and the peak of international crude oil prices would approach the limit of US$180 per ton.

If the country has opened up the refining and crude oil imports to private capital, Zhang Ke would of course direct Jinhu Commercial to rush into the fields of crude oil import, refining and refined oil sales without hesitation. However, he knew very well that the central government's policy insistence in the field of basic energy will eventually be the three super central enterprise aircraft carriers, CNPC, and CNOOC, which are the three super central enterprises, who are proud of the domestic refined oil market and plunder huge profits.

Of course, since CNOOC has been engaged in oil and gas mining for a long time, it has natural disadvantages to CNOOC and Sinopec in the fields of refining and refined oil sales, as well as other petrochemical raw materials refining and sales, it does not mean that CNOOC does not want to break through under the suppression of CNOOC and Sinopec. On the other hand, CNOOC and Sinopec do not want to emerge another strong competitor in the domestic market.

Although these three companies are both directly affiliated to the central government, although the market competition between them is directly administratively intervened by the central government, they all have their own interests. When fighting openly and secretly, the means are no more boring than finding common intrigues in the shopping mall.

Since Sinopec has formed an industrial layout in Wenzhou City, there is no special reason, additional investment in East China will not be outside Wenzhou. At this time, CNPC was busy with industrial layout in North China, Northeast China and other regions, and had no time to take care of Xinting for a while, which actually left a great gap for CNOOC to enter the crude oil refining and refined oil sales market.

In 1998 and 1999, CNPC, Sinopec, and CNOOC were all in the early stage of industrial monopoly and had not yet plundered enough huge profits from the domestic oil market. For the future annual profits, CNOOC's annual profits were only more than 100 billion yuan, and CNOOC, which has been engaged in pure upstream business in oil and gas mining for a long time, has a lower annual profit.

The investment in heavy refining and chemical projects is often more than 10 billion yuan. If the investment scale is small, it cannot reflect the cost advantages of deep-water seaports and ocean-going transportation. However, projects with a total of more than 10 billion yuan are still a bit huge for CNOOC at this time.

Although I am not worried that Dongshan Port will not attract investment in heavy refining projects after its completion, it is common for such a large-scale project to be delayed for seven or eight years.

Nowadays, Jiangnan Province focuses on the expectations of economic recovery in Xinting. The earlier Xinting forms economies of scale, the more it can lead to economic growth in other regions. Not only does Jiangnan Province's hope of economic recovery and growth focus on Dongshan Port, but whether Tang Xueqian, who is in charge of Dongshan Port's construction and industrial development in the province can gain a firm foothold in Jiangnan, also depends to a considerable extent on the rapid development of Dongshan Port. Even from the perspective of personal achievements, Zhang Ke also wants to help Tang Xueqian promote some large-scale projects to be launched in Xinting as soon as possible. Of course, he does not want Dongshan Port's refining and chemical projects to delay for seven or eight years, and the food will be cold after delaying for seven or eight years.

Zhang Ke suggested that Jiangnan Province make full use of the contradictions between these central enterprises to promote some things. It is not only necessary to promote CNOOC to build a refining and chemical base in Xinting, but also to be bolder, break the central government's unified deployment of the integration of upstream petrochemical industries, and let CNOOC implement the integration of Kingsoft Oil. Although in the central government's unified deployment, Kingsoft Oil should be accepted by Sinopec, Sinopec is so negligent about Jiangnan Province. Moreover, Sinopec has built a refining and chemical base in Wenzhou City. Let Sinopec accept Kingsoft Oil, which will definitely delay the development of Jiangnan's refining and chemical industry. Cooperation with Sinopec is fundamentally not in line with the interests of Jiangnan Province.

Of course, doing this will offend Sinopec, but Sinopec is so negligent about Jiangnan Province, and Jiangnan Province has to give them a good look. That would be a shame - winning over CNOOC is what you need to do now.

Zhang Ke and Tang Xueqian discussed in the study for a long time, discussing what aspects are easier to start. If CNOOC really wants to see that there is a possibility of integrating Jinshan Petroleum, they will naturally stand up and charge.

It took less than half a year for the construction of Dongshan Island to be officially launched. The first phase of the project will be built two years later. However, it is imperative that Xinting Port's economy rises and becomes a pole in the overall economic situation of Jiangnan Province.

In addition to 400 square kilometers of tidal flats within the planning red line of Dongshan Port Industrial Zone, Xinting also has an additional nearly 100 square kilometers of industrial land. The cost of land reclamation and land reclamation is extremely high, but the cost of leveling the land directly transferred is extremely low. Dongshan Port only needs to attract investment with deep-water seaport resources and the preferential policies of the port industrial zones by the state, and does not need to learn from other regions to lower industrial land prices to attract investment. As long as all land transfer prices are equal to the cost of land reclamation, Xinting will obtain tens of billions of dollars in industrial land transfer, which can compensate the infrastructure investment in the port industrial zone to the greatest extent and alleviate the local financial pressure of the province and city. For the port industrial governments of the province and cities, the key is to introduce some core high-quality industrial projects.

The current advantage of Jiangnan Province is that the provincial party committee has a high consensus on economic development and the division of labor, rights and responsibilities are extremely clear. Xu Xueping has the determination to go all out. He does not play the checks and balances in the province. He is not vague about who should go to the jail. With the greatest pressure, the provincial government's economic work pressure has been greatly reduced, and the speed of decision-making is also rare in other places.

Zhang Ke accompanied Tang Jing to Jinshan for three days. After sending Tang Jing on the plane to Hong Kong, he accompanied Tang Xueqian to Xinting to participate in the negotiations between CNOOC and Dongshan Port Industrial Zone on the construction of Donghai Petroleum Production Support Base and Warehousing Base.

At this time, CNOOC was only planning the production support base and warehousing base, and it was still a long way to go before real decision-making investment and construction. Tang Xueqian came to Xinting in hopes that this matter could be accomplished first.

This project seems very ordinary in China, with a total investment of only more than one billion yuan. Compared with the infrastructure investment of Dongshan Port of 20 billion yuan, it is not eye-catching at all compared to the steel industry base project of tens of millions of tons, and is even far less than the investment of Yangpu Shipbuilding Industry Base. Domestic media have deliberately downplayed the report on this matter, but RB domestic media has hyped up and tried to put pressure on China through various channels to prevent CNOOC from taking this project.

CNOOC plans to build a production support base in Dongshan Port to serve the large-scale exploitation of oil and gas resources in the boundary sea area of ​​the East China Sea.

China has conducted oil and natural gas surveys in the East China Sea since 1974 and discovered multiple oil fields. In 1995, Hongxing Company successfully produced oil trial drilling in the East China Sea boundary sea area. Since China's offshore oil and natural gas resources are specialized in CNOOC, the offshore oil well construction task in the region is transferred to CNOOC. This will also be the largest offshore oil field invested in and built by China in the East China Sea.

The demarcation oil and gas fields are only ten kilometers away from the East China Sea dividing line between the two countries unilaterally defined by Japan. Japan believes that a considerable part of the entire oil and gas field is in the RB waters, while the CNOOC’s mining point is the basin bottom (sinked zone) of the entire oil and gas field. Once CNOOC exploits oil and gas here, Japan is worried that the oil and gas resources in their territory will flow through the ore veins to outside the dividing line. On the other hand, Japan’s survey of the East China Sea oil and gas resources has just begun and cannot compete with China for submarine oil and gas resources in this area. It can only hope to disrupt the situation and put pressure to disrupt China’s East China Sea oil and gas development deployment.

Although the development of the demarcation oil and gas field was carried out on the offshore continental shelf of China, which was completely undisputed with Japan, some officials of the central ministries and commissions still considered their diplomatic relations with Japan and had an ambiguous attitude. Sometimes they supported CNOOC to take on this project, and sometimes they were hesitant.

As the direct import of oil and gas resources in the boundary sea area, the East China Sea and Jiangnan provinces certainly hope that the central government’s attitude will be tougher and promote the launch of the entire project as soon as possible. In the mining of oil and gas resources in the offshore East China Sea, the oil and gas field should be given priority.

After Zhang Ke accompanied Tang Xueqian to Xinting, Ye Jianbin also rushed from Beijing to Xinting, but the news he brought back from Beijing was not pleasant.

"RB's attitude in the demarcation oil and gas field has changed, and it is proposed that Mitsui Petroleum Exploration Company jointly invest and participate in the development of Chunxiao oil and gas resources, and the oil and gas resources income will be distributed according to the investment ratio." Without outsiders, Ye Jianbin will not be restrained in front of Tang Xueqian, and sat together to talk casually. Only Meng Xueqing still maintained a restrained attitude.

"Everything is related to Mitsui," Zhang Ke swears, "Is it necessary to be so concerned about the Japanese attitude when exploiting oil and gas in an undisputed sea area?" He asked Ye Jianbin again, "What are the attitudes of those officials from the central ministries and commissions?"

"The big guys were silent. However, there were officials in charge of the Energy Bureau within the Development Committee of the Planning Commission who had already clearly supported this proposal," Ye Jianbin was angry when he heard the news. He calmed down at this time, and he felt a little disdainful in his tone. "The officials who supported this proposal also wanted to try their best to talk about the issue out of politics, saying that the cost of offshore crude oil mining is slightly higher than that of international crude oil prices. At present, international crude oil prices are still falling, and there is not much interest in it. Attracting Mitsui's investment is not to sell off state rights and interests, but to introduce foreign capital into the domestic oil and gas mining field, and can also share the investment pressure of CNOOC."

"It's really nonsense. The crude oil mining field can be liberalized to foreign capital. Should we liberalize it to private capital? Jinhu can take out three to five dollars to invest in the dividing oil and gas fields. I wonder what these officials are saying?" Zhang Ke sneered helplessly.

The scale of the first phase of the Dividing Oil and Gas Field is also limited, and US$300 million can account for nearly half of the proportion. Although the cost of offshore crude oil extraction is very high, it mainly supplies oil refineries in the East China Sea and Jiangnan regions, which have transportation advantages and can also make small profits. At present, the meager profits are second, and the domestic dependence on crude oil imports is increasing. Even if China's economic development speed is only considered, it can steadily promote the rise of international crude oil prices.

"Oh, they are still under the name of technical cooperation." Ye Jianbin said.

"Even if we want to conduct technical cooperation with foreign companies, oil companies in the UK, the United States and other countries have stronger technology in the field of offshore oil and gas mining, it is not the turn of Mitsui to get involved. If Mitsui really wants to get involved in the name of technical cooperation, then they can be invited to Xinting to invest in offshore oil and gas mining equipment projects."

"Don't expect the Japanese side to be so stupid." Ye Jianbin said with a smile.

"Of course they are not that stupid." Zhang Ke shook his head helplessly and smiled. The development of the domestic offshore oil and gas mining equipment industry will only further promote the exploitation of Dongshan Sea oil and gas resources. He had previously imagined that the Dongshan Port Industrial Zone should attract offshore oil and gas mining equipment projects, so that Dongshan Port can form a complete industrial chain of offshore oil and gas mining service support, equipment support and crude oil refining.

Tang Xueqian said: "We should contact the senior management of CNOOC to see what CNOOC's attitude is. After all, CNOOC is a direct participant. CNOOC can firmly resist, and other talents can stand up and speak better." CNOOC, Sinopec, and CNOOC are all ministerial-level enterprises. The actual positioning is slightly lower than that of provincial and ministerial-level, but higher than that of vice-ministerial-level. The Energy Bureau of the Planning and Development Commission is only at the department level, and the deputy director of the Planning and Development Commission in charge is only at the deputy ministerial-level. Since the issue is discussed outside of politics, CNOOC can completely deny the significance of the Planning and Development Commission.

"Can you talk about this issue with Liu Chengwei tomorrow?" Ye Jianbin asked with a frown.

Liu Chengwei is the deputy secretary of the Party Committee of CNOOC. The production support base project is only in the early negotiation stage with Xinting. In the plan, CNOOC does not need senior executives of his level to participate. However, Jiangnan Province suddenly attached great importance to this project. Executive Vice Governor Tang Xueqian personally came to Xinting to promote this project, and CNOOC would not neglect it.

This also means a love affair. From CNOOC's positive attitude, it can be seen that CNOOC is still looking forward to opening a gap in the refined oil market from Jiangnan Province.

But tomorrow's meeting is a bit formal, and it is not familiar with Liu Chengwei, so it is not appropriate to talk about this issue rashly. Tang Xueqian frowned, and it seems that he needs to find another way.

"Let's talk." Zhang Ke knocked on the chair and held the support, and suddenly decided.

"How to talk?" Ye Jianbin turned his head and asked Zhang Ke.

Kumho Commercial and CNOOC have no business connections. It is too far from being able to contact Liu Chengwei to stop Mitsui from participating in the development of the bounded oil and gas field on behalf of Japan. Although Ye Jianbin also had the urge to take things under control, Kumho's impulsive participation will only disrupt the situation, and it will also be harmful to Kumho without any benefit.

"Not to talk about this for now," Zhang Ke smiled and said, "We can talk about CNOOC's Hong Kong listing issue first. There are too many restrictions on private capital entering the oil industry in China. These restrictions will not be relaxed in the past decade. Kumho will not directly enter these fields, but CNOOC, Sinopec, and CNOOC are actively promoting overseas listing plans and want to enter the overseas capital market for financing. It is also feasible for Kumho to indirectly enter the domestic oil industry in the form of overseas capital investment..."

"This is a way. CNOOC's listing plan in Hong Kong seems to be somewhat lacking in enthusiasm from investors," Ye Jianbin nodded and asked again, "But don't worry about these central enterprises?"

"Not to mention the future development of the oil industry, CNOOC has long cooperated with international companies in the field of offshore oil mining. In terms of management, it has the highest degree of internationalization. Not to mention profitability, the asset quality is quite good," said Zhang Ke. "Besides, if we participate, even if overseas capital investors - state-owned enterprises listed overseas, it is much more lawful than listing in China... Kumho not only needs to personally participate in the Hong Kong securities market stock issuance of CNOOC's Hong Kong securities market, but also help them find more capital partners in Southeast Asian Chinese businessmen. In this way, we also have enough reason to support CNOOC to enter the refined oil market with the help of Dongshan Port platform."

Zhang Ke probably remembered that CNOOC's attempt to list on the Hong Kong securities market in July 1999 was severely defeated. CNOOC, which was determined to list on Hong Kong United Securities, was almost stunned at that time, which in turn affected CNOOC's layout in the domestic and foreign oil industry chain. It was already May. I believe that CNOOC's senior management had already felt the crisis from the Hong Kong capital market. Kumho stretched out his top position and should not be rejected.

Although it is coming out of the shadow of the Asian financial crisis, the expectation of economic tightening is still strong, and the wave of new technology is surging desperately, but life in traditional industries is not easy. The biggest factor in the failure of CNOOC's listing is that the crude oil market is oversupply in 1999, crude oil prices continue to decline, and the cost of offshore oil extraction is very high. CNOOC's business area is very narrow. Once the crude oil price falls below the offshore mining cost, CNOOC will only have a net loss, and other means to make up for the losses are not enough. In addition, investors are worried that CNOOC's offshore oil franchise will be seized by CNOOC and Sinopec.

No matter how much CNOOC's offshore oil franchise will be given to CNOOC and how much Sinopec will gain, as long as CNOOC has complete market access authority in China, it is enough to be worthy of Kumho to participate in CNOOC's overseas listing. In fact, after giants such as CNOOC, CNOOC, Sinopec, etc. go public overseas, their dividends to overseas investors are also very "generous and generous", so generous that they are so hated by domestic small and medium-sized investors.
Chapter completed!