Chapter 3450
Qian Shaobao's knowledge of Dumai is limited. He only knows that it is an important industrial base responsible for the exploitation of special mineral deposits called oil. The kerosene added to lighters and oil lamps used daily is extracted from petroleum.
Li Yuande, who had been here for a year, knew more about the origin of Dumai, so he gave Qian Shaobao a brief explanation.
In the vast territory of the empire, there are only three oil fields currently in production, located in Shandong, Taiwan and Dumai in front of us.
However, compared to the first two places, it did not take much effort for Haihan to capture the already sparsely populated Dumai area. The Sing Tao authorities first sent troops to occupy this area more than ten years ago, and after encircling a large area of land, they negotiated with Aceh to purchase a two hundred-mile area around Dumai.
After this proposal was rejected by Aceh, the Star Island authorities, who were determined to win, proposed another exchange condition, in which Haihan would send troops to quell the civil strife in Aceh in exchange for the ownership of the Dumai area.
As for buying or renting, it's just a formality.
Aceh, which was suffering from civil war at that time, had no time to fight Haihan over this wasteland. The domestic situation was deteriorating day by day. In the end, it could only agree to the exchange conditions proposed by Xingdao and exchange the ownership rights of this land. Haihan's military aid support.
The subsequent development was basically uneventful. The troops sent by Roger helped the Aceh royal family suppress the domestic rebels and obtained the land around Dumai. After three years of preliminary exploration and infrastructure construction, the Dumai Oil Field finally came into operation in 1649.
However, Li Yuande's knowledge was limited to the modern history of the Dumai area, and he was also a layman regarding the petrochemical industry that Haihan built on this land.
Fortunately, the local official who received them after landing was a technocrat. He explained some superficial petrochemical knowledge, and Li Yuande and others were able to understand it at least five or six points.
After Qian Shaobao listened to the introduction, he took the initiative to ask his question: "Why do we only see various oil storage facilities here, but no devices for extracting oil from the ground? I heard that oil wells need to be drilled to a depth of several hundred feet or even thousands of feet. Underground, how does it work? ”
The official smiled and said: "It's already getting late now. If Mr. Qian wants to see the oil wells, he has to wait until tomorrow. When the carriages and horses are ready tomorrow, we can go together."
Qian Shaobao asked: "Isn't the oil well nearby?"
The official responded: "This is just a port. The real oil production is inland. The nearest oil wells are dozens of miles away. It takes two days by horse-drawn carriage to get there."
Li Dechang sighed at the side: "In such a remote place, I don't know how I discovered oil reserves underground. This is really an amazing thing!"
The official nodded and sighed: "After Mr. Tian spent more than two years in Dumai to find out the exact location of the oil field, the Executive Committee specially awarded him the Outstanding Contribution Award. It is said that this award is not easy to come by. The winners have been awarded since the founding of the People's Republic of China. There are only about ten people, which shows how difficult this matter is!”
Of course, what they didn't know was that it took Tian Yeyou more than two years to locate the exact location of the underground oil field, and that was only possible because of the mineral data brought from another time and space. Otherwise, with the technological level of this era, even if we explore in the wild for a hundred years, we may not be able to find a large oil field that is easy to exploit.
Qian Shaobao heard that the oil field was so far away from the port area that it might not be possible to complete the round trip in one day, so he immediately gave up the idea of going to see it.
Dumai Port is not a trading port. Almost all the ships entering and leaving here are owned by Haihan, and the goods loaded and unloaded are mainly daily necessities and locally produced petrochemical products. The kerosene to be transported to Phuket Island and other places this time has been prepared. It is all packed in cylindrical jars, and the mouth of the jar is sealed with oil wax.
The appearance of this kind of jar is different from ordinary wine jars and pickle jars. It is obviously a container specially made for transporting kerosene. Each jar can hold about twenty kilograms.
Since this thing is flammable, Li Yuande specially arranged a ship for shipment. The quantity of kerosene to be shipped to Phuket this time was a full 500 jars. During the loading process, the jars had to be wrapped with straw and tied with ropes to prevent the jars from colliding with each other along the way.
If the jar breaks and kerosene spills into the cabin, a few sparks can instantly burn the entire ship.
Qian Shaobao watched the laborers lift these jars onto the ship one by one, and couldn't help feeling that it was not easy to transport these things. The transportation cost alone must be much higher than ordinary cargo.
After hearing his sigh, Li Yuande smiled and explained: "I took on the task temporarily this time, so I can only use this old method to load the ship. In fact, there are already ships dedicated to loading petroleum products."
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Seeing that he seemed very interested, Li Yuande continued to introduce: "The cabin of the oil tanker is made of large iron cans made of welded iron sheets. Just use a pipe to pump the oil from the shore storage tank to the can on the ship. After arriving at the port, the same process will be done. , and then pump the oil to the oil storage tanks on the shore. Not only is the loading and unloading speed fast, but also more cargo can be transported. For the same large ship, the oil tanker can load twice as much cargo as the tank. ”
Qian Shaobao said: "Iron sheets are harder than clay pots and are better fixed in the cabin. It must be safer during transportation."
Li Yuande praised: "Brother Qian is right, this is the biggest advantage of oil tankers!"
Various oils produced by the petrochemical industry are basically separated from crude oil through distillation. They are either flammable or combustible, and most of them are liquid. Long-distance transportation inevitably faces safety issues.
The safety of containers made of terracotta tiles during shipping is not ideal. Especially when encountering large winds and waves, they can easily break during collisions. There have been many fire accidents at sea as a result.
Therefore, in recent years, Haihan has specially built a number of cargo ships specifically for transporting fuel. Iron oil tanks have been used instead of clay containers, which greatly improves the safety during transportation.
However, the oil tanks of this kind of oil tanker are expensive to build and require a long construction period due to the processing technology. Therefore, the number is relatively scarce and is far from meeting actual demand. From time to time, there will still be tankers of this type. Mode of transportation.
Wubaitan said it was not much, but the shipment process was complicated and slow and would not be completed for a while. The fleet could only spend the night in Dumai Port.
The next day, several people came to the port after having breakfast in the inn. Five hundred jars of kerosene had been loaded overnight, and a batch of daily necessities shipped to Dumai had also been unloaded.
After Li Yuande personally inspected the kerosene shipment, he ordered the fleet to set sail.
Next, there will be no stops at Selangor, Perak and other small countries along the way. The next stop of the fleet will be Penang Island, 800 miles away.