Chapter 111: Polymer Drive

  In the 1980s, oil bosses and coal bosses were in the stage of original accumulation of capital, and they couldn't help but have a psychology of being content with small wealth. After 20 years, some of them may accumulate billions of assets, thus giving rise to the idea of doing something great.

  However, in cases of only tens or hundreds of millions, it is rare for anyone to make up their mind and invest money in invisible technical fields.

  The tertiary oil recovery technology has not been used in large oil fields nationwide, so even if everyone knows about this technology, they will not take the initiative to introduce and invest in its development.

  Everyone is thinking about how much they can make without spending money or spending less.

  Using four 6-inch, 0.5-ton ultra-low-grade oil wells to exchange for one 2-ton or 3-ton low-grade oil well is considered a good thing in the eyes of bosses.

  Some oil bosses who didn't spend their money were even more willing to buy directly or add money to change wells.

  Xiao Pang remembered Su Cheng's words and did not agree with any of the bosses' requests.

  Today's auction, the price of oil well tons was as low as 200,000 yuan, and if they were opened to 400,000 yuan, it would not be surprising. However, once today is over, selling ton-producing oil wells for 1 million yuan or even more will not be unusual.

  A well producing 3 tons of oil per day can earn over $200,000 in a year, so its price is normally as high as $400,000 to $500,000.

  That's why Xiaopang resolutely implemented the policy of "only exchange, not sell", and when encountering the other party's extremely low-quality oil well, he would even add one or two more wells to exceed his own average production before stopping.

  Even so, oil bosses are willing to change. Many people even brought out their old oil wells.

  After Xiaopang turned around and came back, 175 oil wells became 220.

  There are more than 20 high-yielding wells in this area.

  A whole bunch of contracts, signed for a whole day, tired enough to make Su City dizzy.

  Xiao Pang's name also increased by more than 30 oil wells, Xi Zhi was circling around Su Cheng, asking him: "Master, can these ultra-low-grade wells make up for the loss?"

  Su Cheng asked: "Is there only one way to deal with oil wells, which is to fill holes?"

  Xiao Pang rubbed his head and said: "I also think that if it's for filling the hole, they shouldn't have bought all these oil wells."

  "So, do you think there's a way to make these oil wells more valuable than the ones we swapped for?" Su Cheng had been doing this for his master for a long time and was used to bringing up small benefits. Being an oil boss was very promising, especially with someone backing him, it was comfortable and profitable, without having to worry about cave-ins and deaths like coal bosses did, or the dirty mess of the mining industry. If Xiao Pang was willing to continue doing this, becoming a rich man would be no problem.

  Xiao Pang rubbed his temples with his hands and thought: "Master must have a way to increase the production of these oil wells?"

  "What method?"

  Xiao Pang thought for a long time, looked enlightened and said: "I don't know."

  Su Cheng said with a smile: "We should think of ways to conduct three oil extractions."

  Inside an oil reservoir, it is not all **.

  It has a large amount of oil and natural gas, with different types, the Daqing Oilfield's oil and natural gas is one of the best types, which can be used directly for fertilizer processing.

  Underneath the gas is what people are familiar with as crude oil.

  Relying on natural energy to spout out crude oil, such as the self-spouting wells in Su City, the recovery rate is only 5% to 10%, which is called primary oil extraction. It's like a wet dream, only when the oil reservoir has enough gas can it spout out by itself.

  After the end of primary production, the oil reservoir enters the secondary recovery stage. Some mechanical movement and water injection or gas injection are required to supplement this process in order to extract more oil from it. Through this method, 30% to 40% of the original oil in the reservoir can be obtained.

  However, 60% to 70% of the oil remains underground. Most of them are like asphalt-like oil, thick and nearly solid, which cannot be extracted by ordinary means. Since the 1950s, oilfield developers have been using physical, chemical and biological methods for tertiary recovery. It's like taking medicine, different people need to take different kinds of medicine, just like different reservoirs need different treatment methods. In order to invent these treatment methods, the petroleum industry has made efforts to innovate for 60 years, and finally there are various tertiary recovery methods such as "polymer flooding", "huff and puff" and "steam injection".

  China also conducted some experiments but it will take several years for popularization.

  Su Cheng is quite familiar with this. In his view, whether it's introducing foreign technology or transforming existing Chinese technology, both are very convenient.

  He was in school when tertiary recovery technology was a hot and trendy field, with numerous papers emerging one after another. Su Cheng thought to himself: As long as he could get his hands on some existing technologies, make some key modifications, and come up with an effective tertiary recovery method, it would be easy.

  Xiao Pang roughly knew a thing or two about tertiary oil recovery, and he also knew that the technical difficulties were great. However, out of admiration for his master, he unconditionally agreed: "Then let's use tertiary oil recovery."

  His tone was somewhat like "Let's have Peking roast duck for dinner tonight".

  Su Cheng nodded in satisfaction, he also didn't think that the three oil extractions would be too difficult. If he were to do it himself from scratch, it might take several years to develop a basic steam-driven oil extraction technology, but if they used existing technology for renovation, it was just a matter of how much money to spend.

  Like Harry Houdini, he has mastered several related techniques.

  Back at the factory, Su Cheng first had someone go and check on the three oil extraction methods' data to see the specific development situation both domestically and internationally. Under his hands, a piece of paper was also spread out, calculating which method would be more suitable.

  Just then, the phone rang.

  "Where?"

  "I'm Little Liu from the Oil Field Command Office. Secretary Lin invites you to come over this afternoon, around 3 pm."

  "Alright, thank you, Secretary Liu." Su Cheng glanced at his watch and it was past 1 o'clock again.

  He quickly noted down several key points and then went to the workshop for a walk before heading to the oilfield headquarters.

  In 1988, the eastern part of the city had already taken on a modern appearance. Although the buildings were low and the roads were dusty, cars sped by one after another, and people's clothing had undergone tremendous changes compared to the previous year.

  The greatest happiness of people is not how much they possess, but how much they have added.

  The 1980s were undoubtedly the happiest era for Chinese people, which cannot be compared with the next 20 years.

  The speed of Su City is extremely slow. In the corner of my eye, a cluster of red and yellow skirts flashes by one after another.

  Spring has arrived.

  In the early 1980s, the Japanese drama "Blood Doubt" made Hong Kong's streets filled with cheongsam, while the mid-term film "Red Dress Girl" dominated the streets with red qipao in spring. Then came the yellow cheongsam of the 1986 "China Textile News", making red and yellow coexist in women's wear.

  For some reason, a string of movie lines flashed through Su Cheng's mind: You think you chose this color... Not so...

  Bright red and yellow are easy to make dyes, just like the Eighth Route Army in the revolutionary era chose gray uniforms, not because they looked good or disguised themselves, but because dyes were readily available.

  Modern chemical industry is closely related to everyone.

  Su Cheng slightly stepped on the accelerator, thinking: At least I've done a good deed for Chinese men, at least I've done a good deed for Chinese women!

  Arrived at Lin Yonggui's office, saw the early-arriving oil extraction plant leader, with his double-breasted suit unbuttoned, a string of keys hanging from his trousers.

  Su Cheng let out a sigh and sat down on the waiting sofa, staring blankly ahead.

  This time there will certainly be no more good things like humility.

  It wasn't until around 3:20 that Su Cheng's turn came, and as he sat down, he thought to himself: Being an official is really tiring, with non-stop conversations, eight hours a day isn't even enough. No wonder ancient officials had to study literature, the consequences of saying something wrong were much greater than doing something wrong.

  The secretary made herself a cup of tea and then withdrew.

  Lin Yonggui raised his head and saw Su Cheng, then smiled: "Wasn't yesterday fun?"

  "Great." Su Cheng smiled and said: "Thank you, boss."

  This sentence is enough. If it weren't for Lin Yonggui backing him, he wouldn't have dared to buy more than half of the oil wells in one breath. The auction designed by Bo Rong got less benefits than Su Cheng, and Bo Rong was angry about this, which is not surprising.

  Lin Yonggui saw that he understood, so he smiled and waved his hand, saying: "I called you here, mainly because I heard that you changed the good oil well to a low-yield oil well. What's going on?"

  "I think that if we were to exchange them equally, the oil wells would be more valuable." Su Cheng didn't hide it either and said directly: "I plan to test manufacture three sets of oil extraction equipment."

  "Three oil extractions? Are you confident?"

  "After all, it can be done, but it's a matter of how much money is spent. I plan to use the Yumen oil field or Dagang oil field steam drive. With relatively mature technology and some improvements, the effect should be good."

  "Steam ahead."

  Su Cheng listened to his tone and asked: "Is Oil Field interested in the third oil extraction?"

  "That's right, the Oil Research Institute has been working on it for several years, mainly focusing on polymer flooding, but there's no significant effect." Lin Yonggui lit a cigarette and said, "Steam flooding is already available, but it's not quite suitable for our Victory Oilfield, with general results."

  Polymer flooding is a method of using chemical polymers to soften and extract thick oil, Su Cheng knew that in order to achieve the desired effect, it would take four or five years.

  He thought for a moment and said, "Secretary Lin, I predict that we will soon be able to master the technology of steam drive and apply it to low-yielding oil fields, and there won't be any problem recovering our investment. As for polymer flooding, is it using polyacrylamide? This will probably take a bit longer. If the oil field is interested, I can allocate some to them once I've finished."

  Lin Yonggui understood his meaning and asked: "How long do you estimate?"

  "Polyacrylamide has been around for a long time, so we just need to solve the dispersion and dissolution device." Su Cheng said as he calculated: "About 2 years' time should be enough."

  "What if I give you better conditions? For example, based on the existing oil field research, borrow personnel and equipment from the oil field?"

  "With sufficient resources, maybe 1 year. However, I'm more inclined to do research myself, so that we can get patents. Dahua Industry's current research strength is pretty good." Su Cheng was just negotiating the price, as long as there was a little opportunity, he was still willing to speed up the research.

  Lin Yonggui, however, was not too concerned about the ownership of the patent and said directly: "The patent belongs to you, and the oil field can be used for free. If you can develop the polymer flooding technology within a year, all the personnel, equipment, and technical data currently working on this aspect in the oil field will be given to you."

  Lin Yonggui paused for a moment, then continued: "This is a good thing that benefits the country and its people. Our country's oil resources are very scarce, and heavy oil resources are even more important. If we can increase the recovery rate by 10%, the Victory Oil Field will be able to produce an additional 3 million tons of oil. Daqing, Changqing and other oil fields combined will be able to produce tens of millions of tons more oil, which will have a profound impact on our national economy and defense..."

  Su Cheng nodded naturally and said: "Whether or not there is help from the oil field, I will definitely invest in manufacturing polymer flooding equipment. If the oil field wants to join, I want full authority; otherwise, I'd rather not have it."

  He is not ready to take a purely technical route, and even if he were to focus solely on design, it would be impossible to complete within a year.

  Lin Yonggui nodded slowly.

  ……