Anda Salah secretly cursed Jing Mingqiu for being insatiable, but his smile became increasingly fawning. "It's not easy for Mr. Jing to come all this way. Twenty million barrels is really too little. How about this, I'll give Mr. Jing one million barrels for free. What do you think?"
The average price of a barrel of crude oil is currently fifty US dollars. One million barrels of crude oil is fifty million.
The current exchange rate between RMB and USD is close to six to one.
Fifty million US dollars is equivalent to three hundred million RMB, which is not a small sum for anyone.
However, Jing Mingqiu didn't take these into account. He swayed his finger again and slowly said, "Mr. King, you misunderstand. I'm here to do business, not to rob you."
Anda Salah mistook Jing Mingqiu's dissatisfaction with the ransom offered. Looking at the cold, gleaming mecha on him, for his own safety, he gritted his teeth.
"Five million barrels, that's the most I can give. As you know, although Shat Al-Arab has a lot of oil, a significant portion of it is in the hands of Western powers like the United States..."
Jing Mingqiu tsked twice, interrupting Anda Salah's explanation. "My Arabic is quite standard. Why can't you understand human language? Let me say it again, I'm here to do business, not to rob."
"And," Jing Mingqiu casually glanced at the yellow sand outside the window with disdain, "this broken place has nothing worth robbing. Oil? That stuff is already outdated."
More than ninety percent of Shat Al-Arab's main fiscal revenue comes from oil and related industries. Hearing Jing Mingqiu say this, Anda Salah's heart tightened. Disregarding Jing Mingqiu's formidable martial power, he retorted loudly.
"Oil is the blood of industry. Modern industrial development is completely inseparable from oil. How could it be outdated?"
"That's not necessarily true," Jing Mingqiu explained casually. "Oil has many uses, but over seventy percent of oil is made into various fuels, used for industrial vehicles like cars, airplanes, and ships."
"Now there are cry crystal batteries. For the same volume, they contain more energy than oil, are more convenient to carry, and cry crystal batteries are not afraid of high temperature and high pressure. They won't suddenly detonate due to collision or open flames, making them much safer than oil!"
Anda Salah subconsciously denied it, "You, you're lying. How can such powerful things exist in the world!"
Jing Mingqiu, too lazy to waste words, flipped his wrist, took out a palm-sized crystal battery, along with its energy release device, and threw it over.
"You should have a dedicated laboratory here, right? Find someone to inspect this thing, and you'll know if I'm telling the truth?"
Anda Salah gave a look to the guard beside him. He was terrified but didn't dare to resist, so he could only obediently walk over, pick up the crystal battery on the table, and send it to the laboratory behind with the energy release device.
It wouldn't take much effort to just test the output power. Soon, the chief professor of the Shat Al-Arab National Laboratory, holding a freshly printed test report, rushed in excitedly.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Where did you get this thing? Its energy density is more than a hundred times that of oil! Just this small piece exceeds the energy contained in ten barrels of oil."
A barrel of oil is generally 42 gallons (US). One gallon is equal to 3.785 liters. A barrel of oil is about 160 liters, so ten barrels is 1,600 liters.
The average fuel consumption of an ordinary sedan is eight liters of gasoline per hundred kilometers. This palm-sized cry crystal battery is enough to allow an ordinary sedan to travel continuously for eighty thousand kilometers.
The lifespan of an ordinary car is generally no more than 200,000 kilometers. That is to say, at most three batteries would be enough to support an ordinary car until it reaches the end of its life.
Hearing this, Anda Salah's mind suddenly flashed to the Dragon Crystal electric vehicles he had previously scorned. He initially thought those exaggerated figures were fabricated by Dragon Country, but he never expected them to be true.
Anda Salah had thought many times about what to do if the oil ran out. For this reason, he invested all over the world, continuously building various infrastructure projects, and vigorously developing tourism.
But Anda Salah never expected that before the oil ran out, it would be directly eliminated by the times. He was unwilling to admit defeat like this, and with his neck stiffened, he shouted.
"Even if it can't be used as fuel, oil is the most important raw material for many chemical industries. Not to mention, most plastics are made from petroleum."
"That was in the past," Jing Mingqiu shrugged. "Most chemical industries are not entirely dependent on petroleum. They have many similar substitutes. As for plastics, there are already enough plastics in the world."
"If I remember correctly, ten million tons of waste plastic are thrown into the sea alone every year. Considering the chemical stability and difficulty of degradation of plastic, the combined amount of plastics in the world is now enough for humans to use cyclically."
"There is no trash in the world, only resources in the wrong place. It's just that in the past, technology was insufficient, recycling costs were too high, and recycling efficiency was too low, so no one was willing to do a losing business, which led to the worsening of white pollution."
"Now, I have completely solved this problem."
Jing Mingqiu didn't reveal the method, but after witnessing the magic of the cry crystal battery, Anda Salah had long since believed his words.
He knew from the beginning that even if many industrial products still required petroleum as raw material, after losing its use as fuel, the value of oil had plummeted to the bottom.
But people always have a fluke mentality, so Anda Salah asked another question. At this moment, after the last straw of hope was broken by Jing Mingqiu, he stopped struggling, slumped on his throne, his eyes vacant, and fell into silence.
"Mr. King, you don't have to be so dejected," Jing Mingqiu advised. "I'm not here to show off, I'm here to cooperate with you. Oil is destined to be eliminated. What you need to do now is to find a new way out for Shat Al-Arab."
Anda Salah stared blankly out the window. "A way out? Where is there a way out? Other than oil, we only have endless yellow sand. Could it be that we can sell sand to outsiders!"
"Why not?" Jing Mingqiu raised an eyebrow. "The sand in the desert is a good thing."
Anda Salah gave a wry smile. "What's good about it? This sand is too fine, and its surface is smooth. Coupled with the saline-alkali characteristics brought by a large amount of impurities, it's not strong enough and severely corrodes the metal parts if used as building material."
"It's also unsuitable for industrial products such as glass, optical instruments, handicrafts, and refractory materials, because of the excessive impurities and toxic substances. It requires cumbersome and complex secondary processing first, which would make the cost far exceed that of river sand and mountain sand."
"I said earlier," Jing Mingqiu flipped his wrist, tossing a USB drive around, "there is no trash in the world, only resources in the wrong place. If you can't use it, it doesn't mean I can't."
"Professor Jing, this, this is?"
Anda Salah stared intently at the USB drive in Jing Mingqiu's hand, with a slight drool at the corner of his mouth.
Sensing Anda Salah's ardent gaze, Jing Mingqiu's lips curved slightly. "I can give this to you, but before that, you need to do a small favor for me..."