Chapter 14 Epilogue Traveling through unimaginable history and reality

History is unimaginable, just as we cannot imagine our own destiny.Once upon a time, could you imagine that oil would be closely linked with the fate of each of us?However, in reality, almost everyone is suffering from "oil phobia" nowadays.In the last century, some people said that "oil dominated the 20th century".Today, in the 21st century, people seem to have really discovered that the "oil century" that dominates the destiny of mankind has just begun... In January 2008, the world's oil price broke through $100 per barrel, which once caused global panic.However, who would have thought that after only a few months, the price of oil rose by tens of dollars per barrel, reaching a high price of more than 140 dollars per barrel!

This was unimaginable in the last century. Before 1990, the world oil price hovered at only twenty or thirty dollars per barrel.By 1997, world oil prices not only did not rise, but dropped to $19.3 per barrel.This is not the lowest period yet.In 1998, the price of a barrel of crude oil in the world once fell to less than 10 US dollars!Such crude oil prices have caused oil companies around the world to go bankrupt.There is a boss of a western oil company whose company has been among the top 500 in the world for the first three years, but by 1998, his multinational company suffered a serious loss of tens of billions of dollars.With no choice, he finally chose to end his life.Looking at the history of the past 100 years, it is almost impossible for the price of oil, the "black gold" to jump up to 10 US dollars per barrel, unless politicians and oil speculators maliciously manipulated it through war or terror. .But 10 years have passed, and today in the 21st century—in 2008, only one spring, just three or four months, because of a "subprime mortgage crisis" in the United States and an Iranian "nuclear incident crisis" with little actual trace. Because of this, the price of oil has skyrocketed, reaching a price of more than 140 US dollars per barrel!

From less than 10 US dollars 10 years ago to more than 140 US dollars today, no one can imagine such a change. It is no longer just wealthy Westerners who are affected by this. Chinese who have just had cars are also affected miserably, and other Chinese who do not have cars are also moaning for oil without exception-the increase in the price of oil and the rapid increase in other prices prices, affecting the lives of more than half of the world's population. For a time, "Black Ugin" became a monster that lowered people's living standards.We all fear it, even hate it, but there seems to be nothing we can do about it.In fact, oil itself is innocent, and those who manipulate its fate and those countries with vested interests are the real culprits.

China is a developing country.No one expected the rapid development of China in the past 30 years.The history of human civilization in world economic development and modernization tells us such a harsh law: the more developed a country and society is, the more inseparable it is from oil.Therefore, oil is increasingly influencing China's modernization process.Therefore, oil dominates the fate of every Chinese who is enjoying the achievements of the country's modern civilization - if you want to live a better and richer life, you have to bow to oil. According to statistics from authoritative departments: In 2007, China's self-produced oil was about 180 million tons, and its imports reached 160 million tons. What kind of concept is this?It clearly tells us that in the process of China's modernization and development towards a well-off society, how we go will be closely related to oil, and at the same time will be affected by international oil prices and supplies.

Oil restricts the pace of our economic development, and oil also directly affects the quality of life of each of us.And China can develop to what it is today, oil plays an irreplaceable role. In 1964, when the Daqing Oilfield was discovered, the Chinese government announced to the world in high spirits: "The days of using foreign oil are gone forever." What people did not expect is that in less than 20 years, China's modernization The rapid development of construction has forced us to return to the era of importing "foreign oil" - and this time when importing a large amount of "foreign oil", we are still full of vigor and pride, because it marks that our country has entered a great history stage.It is a symbol of strength and development, an index of happiness and pride, and it is the true pride of our Chinese nation in front of the world!

During this process, we cannot forget Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China's reform and opening up, who led the Chinese people to usher in a new era of Chinese history that shocked the whole world.Among them, China's opening-up policy and its implementation process are even more thrilling, splendid and brilliant, with earth-shattering significance.Many people don’t know now that China’s opening to the outside world was preceded by offshore oil development, and it was the drum that sounded China’s opening to the outside world and influenced the subsequent 30-year history of China’s economic development and the establishment of its status as a great power.

This book is a particularly meaningful and important event that I encountered when I was accepted to write the "Hundred Years of China's Petroleum History" by the petroleum department.Therefore, after completing the interview task during the Spring Festival this year, I started to write with great eagerness and excitement from the first day of the Lunar New Year, and completed the book intermittently until the eve of the "5.12" Wenchuan Earthquake.It was first published on the "Chinese Writers" where I worked, and now it is officially published by Writers Publishing House.In my opinion, the event described is an extremely important event in the great reform and opening up movement launched by the Chinese Communists 30 years ago.

If China had not opened the door to the outside world around 1978, it would not have been able to stand tall among the world's economic powers today, nor would it have been so prosperous and powerful in all aspects today.Foreign cooperation in offshore oil exploration seems to be a very common thing now, but 30 years ago, it was simply an earth-shattering revolution.Because China has been closed for a long time, especially after the "Cultural Revolution", the Party Central Committee headed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping made a decision to introduce Western oil companies from "capitalist countries" to enter our sea area for cooperative oil exploration. In their eyes, it is "throughout" "taking the capitalist road".Think about it: using capitalists’ money to allow capitalist companies to enter China’s territorial waters is not only a question of “taking the capitalist road”, but also has the obvious characteristics of “traitorism”—letting oil platforms with the sun flag and the Stars and Stripes fly Drilling wells in China's oceans and letting them take part of the oil produced is not "traitorism", what is it?

The struggle in the early days of opening to the outside world was no less intense than the debate on the standard of truth.But Kang Shien, Zhang Wenbin, Qin Wencai and a group of oil workers did just that!Under the unified deployment and leadership of the Party Central Committee, they did it at the risk of being misunderstood as "traitors", and they did it vigorously and effectively, creating a new chapter in China's oil history, thus opening the prelude to China's opening up .Among them, the wise decision-making of the Party Central Committee headed by Deng Xiaoping played a key role, as well as the full support of leaders such as Hu Yaobang, and the wisdom and courage of a large number of new PetroChina people who came out of Daqing. It is their joint efforts to promote It ushered in the comprehensive launch and new situation of China's opening up to the outside world.

This extraordinary period of history should be remembered by future generations.The Republic will not forget.People will never forget. Oil has nothing to do with me.But since I wrote it, I can no longer let go of my relationship with oil—as a reportage writer, the history of oil development in New China and the oil situation in the contemporary world have given me a huge impulse and impact, which cannot be concealed epic and must be written.I was fortunate to get to know the leaders of the new China's oil industry such as Yu Qiuli and Kang Shien, and I was also fortunate to get to know the oil warrior and outstanding leader like the protagonist Qin Wencai again.Minister Qin Wencai is another wise and honest senior leader since I met Minister Yu Qiuli.Minister Qin has another point that I admire very much - he is already over 80 years old, but he has been writing the history of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and has achieved fruitful results!He has a kind of literati feeling in his bones, which makes me respect him even more, and we have become friends for a long time.I feel a sense of intimacy and security when I get acquainted with such "old eight roads".Writing a book for such a person, I feel at ease, no matter how much I do, I will not feel "disadvantaged".In these old revolutionary cadres, there is no philistine, nor any utilitarianism. What is floating in their bodies and hearts is their loyalty and dedication to the country, the nation, and the cause they love.

China's oil industry and China's offshore oil industry are not what they used to be.But we will never forget the pioneering contributions of Kang Shien, Zhang Wenbin, Qin Wencai and other older generation oil workers.Especially when seeing how well Chinese oil workers are doing in the overseas oil battlefield today, I feel that the older generation of oil workers were wise and great in their decision to cooperate with foreign countries. The feats they have made for the motherland will always be a special wealth for the growth and development of our country and nation. Salute to the people of PetroChina! Salute to the "breakers"!