"Congratulations, David, my friend, I believe this is just the beginning, isn't it?"
"Thank you, Barron. I hope so too and will do my best to do so."
This is Neverland, a suburb of London, where Barron came with Cameron to celebrate his election as leader of the Conservative Party.
Yes, just in early December, 64-year-old Michael Howard resigned as leader of the Conservative Party - speaking of which, for a politician of the Conservative Party leader's level, 64 is not too old. After all, Michael Howard, who was still in office before Barron's rebirth nearly 20 years later, was two years older than Howard... At that time, he was already in his eighties!
The main reason was that Howard led the Conservative Party to defeat the Labour Party in this general election. Therefore, Howard was disheartened and did not wait until five years later to fight again. Instead, he prepared to leave these five years for the next party leader to prepare for the 2010 general election.
Cameron is 39 years old this year. In this Conservative Party leader election, he was not the most favored candidate at first. However, after getting the support of the former leader Howard, Cameron was finally elected with a high vote and became a "dark horse."
But this is understandable, because the current prime minister became the leader of the Labour Party in 1997 and led the "New Labour Party" to win the general election. When he first served as prime minister, he was only 44 years old.
His youth at the time attracted the attention of the whole world, and his youth, vitality and enterprising spirit also made the New Labour Party highly praised.
Now, as the opposition party, the Conservative Party would also be willing to use the election of 39-year-old Cameron to show that it is still energetic and committed to reform.
When Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative Party and delivered his inaugural speech, he stated that he would reform the Conservative Party and hoped to lead the Conservative Party to compete with the Labour Party led by Blair in the next general election.
It is worth mentioning that after Cameron took office as leader of the Conservative Party, among the "shadow cabinet" he nominated, Johnson, who served as Education Secretary, and Theresa, who served as Transport Secretary, would both become prime ministers in the future.
At the same time, in his conversation with Barron, Cameron also proposed to accelerate the conservative "new and old replacement" process and start focusing on cultivating young people with potential.
Hearing this, Barron raised his eyebrows. It seemed that the other female prime minister would also be included in the Conservative Party's training list. After all, at this time, there was already a tendency towards political correctness in the British elections.
Young + ethnic minorities + women, well, no matter how you look at it, they are all potential talents worth cultivating.
…
Just before Christmas, Allied Energy Group CEO Eperel Singleton returned to London.
After completing the acquisition of the natural gas business of National Grid of Britain, he handed over the affairs of Britain to his deputy - mainly to integrate the newly acquired natural gas pipeline network with the pipeline network of the original Northern Gas Company. Then he went to California and was personally responsible for the integration after the acquisition of Unocal.
According to the terms of the acquisition of Unocal, United Energy Group needed to retain most of Unocal's employees. Later, United Energy Group sold Unocal's oil and gas resources in the United States to Chevron, and they also took over a part of the employees, accounting for a quarter of Unocal's employees at the time.
As for the remaining Unocal employees, United Energy Group will retain about two-thirds in North America to continue supporting its business, while one-third of the employees will be sent to overseas markets in the United States.
This includes the refinery built after Unocal's refinery in California was demolished and relocated to Colo.
At this time, this refinery no longer belongs to only the United Energy Group. They have cooperated with the West African Group and have approved a project to invest US$1.5 billion to build a large refinery near the refinery that can process more than 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Afterwards, this original refinery will be owned by a refining and chemical company called Unocal, and the original Unocal refining and chemical plant equipment will continue to be dismantled from the United States and transported here to increase its scale.
This is mainly to take advantage of Kolo's local labor costs and location advantages.
On the one hand, it can train industrial workers for Colo and increase the income of local people, while the labor costs and training expenses are also borne by the United States.
In addition, the crude oil produced by the Kolo offshore oil field can be refined nearby - United Energy Group has already abandoned Unocal's oil and gas resources in the United States.
And when it comes to refined petroleum product sales, competition in North America is already fierce enough, so there is no need for them to get involved.
In the future, the sales of crude oil and refined oil products of United Energy Group will mainly target the African mainland, Asian and European markets.
Just like the Kolo Unified Petrochemical project, United Energy Group holds 60% of its shares and West Africa Holdings holds 40% of the shares. They will cooperate with China's Sinopec, and the other party will provide the corresponding equipment and construction of the new plant. They will deliver this part of the cost in the form of future products.
At a time when China's energy gap is growing, such cooperation is beneficial to both parties.
The new project of Kolo Unified Petrochemicals is expected to start construction by early next year and be completed before 2008, just in time for the peak of oil prices.
In addition, according to what Epely Singleton told Barron's, Cologne Unified Petrochemicals also intends to continue cooperating with Sinopec and invest in a large refining and chemical project in China to supply the Asian market nearby.
According to an analysis report issued by a team led by Will Rathvon, head of global project finance at Standard Chartered Bank, as oil prices rise, most of the world's oil-producing countries have plans to expand their production, but the current lack of global refining capacity has a bottleneck effect on oil prices.
In energy-hungry Asia, refineries are running at 95% of their capacity; in North America and Europe, the figure is also at 90%.
In this report, it is directly stated: "This tight operating level has pushed up oil prices."
Because many communities oppose the construction of refineries nearby, most new refineries are located outside the United States and Europe...
Read the original text at Liu#9@书/吧!
For example, it is difficult to consider the Colo Petrochemical project in Europe. In addition to labor costs, various environmental audits and protests from relevant organizations are enough to cause headaches.
Approximately 60% of the newly built oil refining facilities are currently located in Asia and the Middle East, mainly in China, India, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kuwait and Japan.
The expansion of China's local refining scale will be unprecedented in the future, but even so, it will still be somewhat insufficient for its own needs.
"I will go to Kolo next. When the new project starts there, the recruitment and training of personnel will begin. However, before the new refinery is completed and put into operation, all personnel can only take turns to receive practical training at the relocated plant."
Epelí Singleton told Barron:
"It will take nearly two years for the planned new factory to be completed. Some people have suggested that before that, these workers can be sent overseas for labor export, which can not only generate revenue but also train workers..."
"That's a good idea. I will push for it."
Currently, in oil-producing countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, more than 80% of local workers are foreign workers.
They mainly come from India, Pakistan and Southeast Asian countries. In this case, why can't we accept some Kolo workers?
Barron is ready to mention this to the powerful people in the Middle East he knows. After all, it is only a short-term labor export, and in terms of salary, they are more competitive.
Well, no big problem.