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Chapter 233 When Can The Oil Well Be Sealed?

The spill of crude oil was an event that all governments detested. This was a disaster that no one ever wanted to happen in their own territorial waters!

Not only was the viscous, crude oil difficult to clean, but the sea area that was covered by it also brought a complication that was capable of making zoologists jump to their deaths! This complication refers to the bundles of seaweed, coral reefs, seabirds and small fish that would inevitably die, due to toxic chemicals that are released by the crude oil, such as benzene and toluene. The great loss is difficult to be measured in terms of money, but it was known that it would undoubtedly deal with the fishing and tourism industries a devastating blow.

It only took a single day for the crude oil to spread over more than 10 square kilometers. Despite the efforts of the seven oil wells, which were stationed there by the Ohno group, it appeared to be useless.

"Command Ohno group to stop all of their sea projects here immediately. Then, start the primary disaster relief plan. Ask the coast guards from all over the country to quickly take part in the remediation work. Also, commission each city to dispatch one-third of their firemen to participate. Place orders from all the textile factories and chemical plants, instructing them to produce oil absorbent mats and powders at full capacity. Also, unseal all of the oil absorbent booms in stock in the cities on the shoreline. There must be more than two rows of oil absorbent booms set up by the bank. Do not let the crude oil leak onto the shore!" Gaddafi, the president of Libya, who was in his late sixties, sat on the office chair, which was made out of walnut wood, while his skin, which revealed quite a number of age spots, tightened like a discus.

He had never been as angry as he was today, despite having been in power for 40 years. This could not even compare to when he had launched an armed coup to overthrow the rule of the dynasty in 1969, followed by the sanction of the US-led western group, nor when he was criticized by George W. Bush!

"Stop all of the investment plans immediately and withdraw all possible funding. Then, mobilize all of the relevant industries, making them responsible for the purchase and production of oil cleaning materials. Contact the Air System Company, then rent all of their idle planes and deliver the materials to Libya by air transport as quickly as possible." The mentally exhausted head of the Nakagawa family, Nakagawa Ohno, was sitting on a wicker chair, giving out these orders, one after another, with shaking hands.

This was absolutely the biggest crisis that the Nakagawa family had ever seen. Not only did they have to bear the astronomical costs of the environmental compensations, as well as the enormous costs of the oil cleaning, they also had to face a hard hit from their foe, the Mitsui family.

Looking at all of the major oil spill accidents that had occurred around the world for the past few decades, each had resulted in the loss of at least 10 billion US dollars!

For example, there was an accident in 1999, when the oil tanker "Erika," which carried 20,000 tons of oil, sunk into the sea at an area of 70 kilometers south of the Port of Brest. At that time, the EU investigation team spent two months on the case. When all was said and done, the investigation resulted in a cost of 2.1 billion US dollars, which was fully paid for by the French Total S.A. group. But, this was just the compensation for the pollution that resulted from the 20,000 tons of crude oil. In fact, the cleaning fee that they had to pay was double this amount!

Nakagawa Ohno continuously chewed on three fast-acting pain relief pills, as his heart was weakened out of anxiousness. The No.1 drilling platform could earn more than this amount within two days. The oil spill incident at the Gulf of Mexico, which was similar to theirs currently, had led to economic losses of more than 100 billion US dollars. England’s oil tycoons had already paid almost 30 billion just for compensation, and this had yet to even include the cleaning costs!

As of this moment, the conservative estimate for their projected costs already reached into the billions of US dollars, which was too much for the Nakagawa family to bear. Even if they were wealthy enough to have total assets worth 300 billion US dollars in the Union Bank of Switzerland, their annual net profit was only a few hundred million US dollars.

In order to come up with 20 billion US dollars, the Nakagawa family would have to borrow more than 16 billion US dollars to fill the gap, unless they closed out their immovable properties. But, closing out the immovable properties would officially signify the beginning of the fall of the Nakagawa family, or at least result in a huge step backwards for at least a few decades. If this were to happen, their domestic position of second place would most certainly be reduced to fifth or sixth place...

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, welcome to CCTV News channel’s regularly broadcasted News. I am the host, Lang Yongchun, and I will now introduce the main headlines!"

"The Palestinian government criticized the Israel conflict strongly, as Hamas swore to resist until the end!"

"The Ministry of Culture made an announcement yesterday, pledging that they are going to fully support the development of the emerging culture industry on the Internet."

"An especially huge oil spill has occurred off the coast of Libya, and the neighboring countries have indicated that they will lend a helping hand in order to save the polluted sea area together."

"Next, we broadcast the details..."

"Yesterday at 3 p.m. Beijing time, a huge oil spill accident occurred at the economic zone between Libya and Garraf. The cause of this incident was due to leakage at the bottom of the oil control valve of a drilling platform that was developed by a Japanese petroleum corporation, which led to the gushing out of a large amount of crude oil."

"This is perhaps another major accident, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Mexico. When our accredited reporter in Libya, Hu Qianqian, sent us the latest information, the oil was still leaking."

"According to reports, the broken pipeline was gushing out oil at the rate of 12 thousand tons per day."

"China’s PetroChina, along with the Royal Dutch Shell company and the American ExxonMobil company, will be joining hands to provide humanitarian aid towards this havoc caused by the Japanese Nagakawa Ohno group."

"For now, only time will tell whether we will succeed or fail. We must seal the leaking pipes in the shortest time possible, in order to resolve the problem from its root. We have already sent the national expedition group to the site of the incident, in order to command the coordination work to be done. The Japanese government has also indicated that they will provide modern well-control technology, as well as donate 700 tons of oil absorbing powder, so that we may carry out decontamination efforts!"

"Mr. Andy Pierre, How long will it take to effectively control the leakage accident this time?"

"Hmm..." Andy Pierre finally spoke with a clearly hesitant tone. "If everything goes well, we will seal the oil well successfully within 15 days.

...

"If you can seal it within 15 days, then I will climb three rounds around the stone monument!" Chen Fan, who was watching the replay of the news online, said categorically.

The seabed could not be compared to land. Even with the cooperation of America, England, and Mexico, the three countries had still spent two months and 10 days to seal the oil well in Mexico. Although the oil well in Libya was not as deep, it was still unrealistic to think that the oil well could be sealed within 15 days.

"Huh! Nagakawa family, don’t you understand that, in the face of violence, money is softer than tissue paper? Why do you provoke me?" Chen Fan, who was looking towards the sky, closed the tab on the browser. It had been three days since he last took care of Cloudracer, so he reckoned that it must have been infuriated for a long time now.

This time, he brought a Barrett anti-material sniper rifle and was prepared to use it to defend himself, when observing the Gorillas. This was to protect himself, just in case the Gorillas had malicious intents towards him.

This large weapon, which weighed 15kg and was equipped with 10 cartridge clips, was capable of penetrating a helicopter’s bulletproof glass windshield from a distance of two kilometers. At the same time, it could also split the pilot in half!

Also, if it was equipped with a high energy and fully metallic High Explosive Anti-Tank warhead, it would be able to penetrate a bulletproof Hummer from a distance of three kilometers. It could even penetrate five giant Gorillas in a line, forming a sugar-coated Chinese hawthorn fruit on a stick!

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