211 Libya Sea Zone Inciden (1/2)

The bustling and crowded city of Tokyo did not manage to leave any impression on Chen Fan's memory. The only thing he could remember was Dai Yu. She had an oval face which was not stunningly beautiful but was charming enough.

It was 6pm and the evening lights were just being lit in the city.

Standing in the hotel parking lot, Chen Fan slapped on the car door as if nothing had happened earlier. Turning to Dai Yu who was beside him, he said, ”I am going back now. How about you? When are you going back to China?”

”Why should I tell you?” Learning from Chen Fan, she did not answer the question directly.

”Well, since you don't want to tell me, it's fine!” Chen Fan was speechless for a split second, but he quickly laughed it off. ”Bye, then. Ask them to send you back. I no longer need the car!”

Just after he finished speaking, he grabbed his handbag—the only thing he had brought to Japan—and walked towards the road.

”Hey, hey, hey!” After he had already walked for over 10 meters, Dai Yu stamped her foot and shouted, but her voice was covered by the noise from the passing vehicles.

Normal people travel overseas by plane but Chen Fan did by submarine.

Zhongyun was a little more than 800 nautical miles from Tokyo. In just three and a half hours, Chen Fan was standing once again in the cave among the reefs. He had actually traveled faster than by plane, taking into account the time needed for waiting, taking off and landing.

It was 12 days away from the first crude oil delivery. Chen Fan had to think of a way to disable a few of the oil wells within those 12 days.

The seven oil wells were all self-elevated types. Three pillars were forced into the seabed by a hydraulic system. When the platform stopped working, the pillars could be withdrawn, so that the whole platform could float on the sea. A tugboat would then be used to maneuver the platform to a new drilling spot.

Although where such platforms could work was restricted by the depth of the water and they could not function in deep sea, they could be shifted around freely and used repeatedly. Thus, they were a popular choice among the medium-to-small oil wells. Unlike expensive fixed oil wells, these mobile ones could be used for drilling in any place without the worry that oil reserves might be limited, as they could be shifted to a new location. In China, most offshore oil wells were of this type.

The next morning, once Chen Fan woke up, he started controlling the electric eel to swim towards the Graff Sea in the Libyan Exclusive Economic Zone.

By the time the electric eel reached the zone, he would still have 10 more days left.

Of course, he had to put up a show in the meantime. If he arrived there without any oil tankers, the other party might also consider it a breach of the agreement.

Five oil tankers, all registered with Panama, were under the name of Cruiser Offshore Company. At the moment, they had passed India and were three days away from reaching Saudi Arabia, where they would collect their crude oil.

Chen Fan had already made a call the night before, asking them to send two tankers, one 60,000-ton DWT and one 50,000-ton DWT, to sail towards Egypt, past the Suez Canal and then the Mediterranean, and finally towards Libya.

When the two tankers reached their destination, what could the other party do?

If they could not provide enough oil, they should just get ready to pay the compensation!

Even if they could provide the oil, it was no big deal. Chen Fan could sell it. It was just that he would be wasting his time without making any profit.

The tankers needed six and a half days to reach their destination, while the electric eel needed two.

Two days were neither too long nor too short for Chen Fan. When the electric eel finally arrived, he was not really tired from the boring journey as he was already used to traveling long distances.

Maybe God was on Chen Fan's side. After he found a place and made the electric eel wait until midnight, the calm sea was already filled with fog. The white vapor reduced the visibility to less than 50 meters and Chen Fan could only see a blurry orange flame burning on the drilling platform.

To avoid choosing the wrong target, the electric eel deliberately moved closer to the platform to confirm.

Then, it made a quick dive into the 120-meter-deep seafloor in order to find a way to destroy the oil well.

An underwater drilling rig was made by first inserting a drill pipe into the production layer where the crude oil would be stored and then connecting the oil extraction pipe. Following that, a huge valve would be built on the seafloor to control the flow of crude oil and gases.

The oil wells here were all shallow self-extraction types. Because the pressure under the seabed was higher than outside of it, the oil would spray into the platform via the pipes automatically without any human effort.

Destroying the facilities here was a piece of cake. The electric eel only needed to damage the 5-meter-high valve standing on the seafloor in order to completely disable the drilling platform above.

.........

At 12:25am, in the number three platform's main control room, rows of monitoring equipment had been working day and night, loyally recording any data about the oil wells and the extraction process. Furthermore, they would send various commands based on the changes in the data collected.

This was a fully automated control room, one that combined the most advanced technologies in all of Japan. In theory, even if nobody was operating the system, the oil extraction process would still be completed successfully.

Of course, that was only in theory. In reality, nobody would leave such an important job, one that could affect the whole company drastically, to just machines.

Usually, there would be two technicians on duty. However, on that day the technician called Hiroto Uchida was on medical leave, and only Ryota Saka, who was aged 33, was on working.

”Anfina, it is only three more days to my leave. I would like to go to Tripoli to buy some winter clothes. Do you have any good places to recommend?” Ryota Saka put his legs on the flashing devices around him, closed his eyes in self-absorption and gently spoke to a Libyan lady in fluent Arabic.

He met this young lady, who was the daughter of a trader, when he last went to Tripoli to purchase something. Away at sea most of the time and adept in Arabic, he was immediately attracted to this tall lady with brown skin. He quickly applied for two days of leave in an attempt to chase her.

Maybe his high monthly salary of 20,000 USD was too tempting, or maybe he was very experienced. In any case, when he boarded the ship, the lady was at the pier to send him off!

A soothing voice came from the satellite phone. ”I will go with you. You are a foreigner and may get deceived easily!”

Yes! I was waiting for this line! Ryota Saka was overjoyed in his heart, but he continued speaking in a polite voice. ”Well, thank you so much. To show my appreciation, I will treat you to lunch at Ter... Oh, sh*t...” He stopped his sentence in an abrupt, shocked voice.

Blare! Blare! Blare! An ear-piercing alarm sounded off throughout the platform.

Clack! Ryota Saka quickly threw the phone aside and hastily jumped up from his seat. He swiftly opened the fist-sized plastic cover in the middle of the devices and smacked at the red button beneath.