Chapter 318: Only Forty to Fifty Years Left for Oil Exploitation?

“Oh yeah, Zhao Chiang, how much would the High Energy 1’s production costs be?” Chen Jin asked after having thought about a question.

“Uhm, very high for lab production,” Zhao Chiang said after thinking. “About some 10 thousand dollars per kilogram. Nevertheless, the cost is expected to drop below 1,000 dollars in mass industrial production. Assuming that each electric car is incorporated with a hundred kilograms of high energy batteries, the cost of an entire car would only be around several ten thousand dollars. It is totally possible for consumers to buy an electric car with ‘High Energy 1’ batteries installed within a 200-thousand-dollar budget.”

In fact, Chen Jin’s question was a little extra. For all products that could be mass-produced industrially, their prices would plummet after a period of time no matter how high initial prices were. Hence, there was no need to worry about consumers not being able to afford “High Energy 1” battery products. Chen Jin nodded. Suddenly, something popped up in his mind. International Oil Price!

“How many dollars per barrel are international oil prices at? Have you been paying attention to the prices?” Chen Jin asked Zhao Chiang.

“You got the right person, Mr. Chen. We have been paying lots of attention to the international oil price trend. After the M nation established the regional economic alliance last year, while they are restricting the export of high-tech products to the Z nation, they also gathered several major oil-producing countries as they intend to raise international oil prices by reducing and limiting oil production. Within a year, the international oil price has surged from 70 dollars per barrel to over 140 dollars per barrel. Oil prices have reached their highest point in more than two decades.”

“140 dollars per barrel? It doubled?” Chen Jin did not follow the news every day, but he often heard complaints about the rising prices in malls, courier fees inflating, and troubles within the logistic field from the people around him. This was the most visible impact of rising oil prices. Oil was too closely interconnected to daily life. Oil was not only used as fuel in industries, but gasoline and diesel refined from it was also a necessity in logistics and transportation. If oil prices were to rise, in the people’s livelihood, the prices of everything would be inflated. It could be said that both were directly correlated as oil prices would directly affect the civilian’s quality of life.

“Mr. Chen, it is not only oil prices that are rising. International prices of iron ore, copper, rare metals, and food are all rising with inflations averaging at least 30%. The person pulling the strings from behind is without question the M nation. Many of the M nation’s big multinational corporations are exploiting their ‘country of origin’ entitlements and controlling the rise of raw materials according to their government’s demands. They are doing this to stop the Z nation from rising by increasing the cost of forward developments. Or you can put it in this way; the M nation is powerless against us and has absolutely no other way to stop us. So, they can only do this to give us some blockades. But we must admit, it does indeed yield some effects. Over the past year, prices of products within the country have risen by 15% on average. We can see a variety of news that urges to curb the rapid inflation of goods on television every day. But our country is so massive. With a 1.4 billion population, our demands in all aspects are also larger. With the prices of raw materials rising, our people’s quality of life has indeed reduced by a whole lot. Our days have indeed become harsher,” Zhao Chiang said with a depressing tone.

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“Heheh, this is because they have no more tricks up their sleeves.” Chen Jin shook his head while sneering. The M Empire, forever that measly. He remembered a joke in his head: about 30 years ago, there were experts who warned that oil resources were depleting with only about 40 to 50 years of reserves left, and in the future, oil prices would definitely rise. About 20 years ago as well, there were also experts who warned that oil resources were depleting with only 40 to 50 years of reserves remaining. Even until a decade ago and recently, there were experts who were still going: oil resources are depleting, there will be gone by 40 to 50 years. It could even be concluded that, even if 40 to 50 years really went by, oil resources would probably still last for several decades.

This planet was just too big. When old resources depleted, new ones were found. When land resources were depleted, there was still a broad ocean floor. Hence, there was no need to worry too much about having insufficient resources… humans would find a way and get the resources they desired. Especially for oil. For the pricing of this raw material, the reasonable price range would be 50 to 100 dollars per barrel. Over 100 dollars would be unrealistic and would imply deliberate inflation. New products or technology would appear immediately to suppress the price.

For example, coal liquefaction technology would begin to become profitable. Domestic coal-to-oil plants could go all-out to convert coal into oil. Underwater mining for combustible ice would also become profitable. The associated drilling platforms could extract a large amount of combustible ice from the deep sea. Wind power, hydropower, solar energy, nuclear power plants, and other clean energy sources would also enter an era of fast development.

Besides, the development of electric cars would also hasten. Subsidies granted by the state would increase and the construction of supporting facilities such as charging piles would also speed up abruptly. All these initiatives had only one purpose: reduce oil consumption, gradually shed off over-reliance on oil products.

Zhao Chiang said enthusiastically, “Mr. Chen, this is an excellent opportunity, a great time for us to sell our ‘High Energy 1’ batteries in large amounts. The country launched a few guidelines a few years ago, which is to achieve 100% electrification of buses and taxis by 20X5, to realize complete elimination of fuel vehicles and to ban the sale of all fuel vehicles by 20X0. By then, all the batteries needed by the billions of automobiles across the nation, how scary of a number would it be? And how colossal is the market going to get? Our ‘High Energy 1’ battery is the most advanced, safest, and densest in energy among all batteries. Based on the ‘High Energy 1′ battery’s market competitiveness, we could at least take down half of the trillion-dollar battery market! Mr. Chen, Xing Hai Technologies will soon be an energy giant and become the world’s biggest energy carrier supply company!”

Chen Jin nodded. What Zhao Chiang said was true, the rising oil price was indeed beneficial for the promotion of High Energy 1 batteries. Billions of automobiles and the battery market of several trillion dollars; and this was not just limited to the automobile industry. Thinking about such humongous profits, was there a need to hesitate?

Announce it. Immediately announce Xing Hai Technologies’ breakthrough in the new energy field and reveal the power of High Energy 1.

Henceforth, on the 17th of March, Xing Hai Technologies held a product conference and launched their brand-new battery product: High Energy 1.

The blockbuster was detonated. Less than 30 minutes after the conference, news about High Energy 1 swiftly went viral on the internet, flooding social media platforms and forum websites. The huge waves that came after were beyond even Chen Jin’s expectations.