The weather in Europe has been particularly cold this year. In December, the average temperature was only 2 degrees, and many places were covered with ice and snow.

After the New Year holiday, the weather is getting colder and colder. For Europeans, the cold makes them even less willing to do things, so they usher in the beginning of the year lazily, feeling a little unmotivated about anything they do.

But it was at this time that Europeans also ushered in another cold spell.

After the natural gas price increase in early 2009, Russia officially announced on January 3 that the price of natural gas supplied to Europe will increase by another 18% this year, reaching 420 US dollars per thousand cubic meters!

As we all know, Europe is an energy-poor place, especially in developed countries such as Western Europe. Basically, all the resources they should have have been dug up, so now they are basically rooted in Africa and absorb various mineral resources from Africa.

For own use.

However, natural gas, a resource related to national economy and people's livelihood issues, is not available in Africa. European countries need to import natural gas resources from the Middle East and Russia.

European countries' own natural gas self-sufficiency rate is about 30%, and the remaining 30% is imported from several major oil-producing countries in the Middle East, and 40% is imported from Russia.

In fact, Russia is not the country with the largest natural gas reserves in the world. Iran does. They have 47.80 trillion cubic meters of storage, Russia has 47.57 trillion cubic meters, which is slightly inferior, and the United States ranks fifth.

However, Iran has always been sanctioned by the Western world, so their oil resources and natural gas are generally unable to be sold to European countries. Instead, they are sold to Asia. In the past two years, China's demand for Iranian energy imports has increased significantly, so it allows them to produce

Excess natural gas and oil resources have been fully alleviated.

Although the United States has a vast land and rich resources and absolutely sufficient natural gas reserves, the key point is that the United States implemented an "energy export ban" in the 1970s, prohibiting the export of energy, especially natural gas, because this will cause their domestic resources to increase.

Prices From his previous life to the time Xiao Qi was reincarnated in 2013, the prices of natural gas, oil, electricity, water and other energy sources in the United States were extremely low compared to those in China. This was due to the protection of this "energy export ban"!

Therefore, the only thing European countries can rely on is Russia, which is closest to them and most convenient for transporting natural gas. Therefore, the natural gas transported by Russia to Europe in recent years has basically been about 130 billion cubic meters every year.

Look at the dependence of European countries on Russian natural gas: Germany imports the most natural gas from Russia every year, with 34.5 billion cubic meters, accounting for 42% of their total consumption; Turkey follows closely behind, with 400 million cubic meters, accounting for total consumption

67%. Italy is 22 billion cubic meters, accounting for 28% of total consumption, the UK is 15.2 billion cubic meters, accounting for 16% of total consumption, and France is 10.1 billion cubic meters, accounting for 24% of total consumption.

In addition to these developed countries, the total imports of other small European countries are not large, but their dependence on Russian natural gas is very high. Hungary is 63%, Jack is 80%. Poland is 52%, Croatia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria are almost 100% imported.

Russian natural gas.

Russia's natural ally, Ukraine, is a country that will oscillate between the EU and Russia in the future. Experts predicted at the end of 2013 that either a huge change or a war would break out next year. Its dependence on Russian natural gas is 36%.

It can be said that as soon as Russia says it wants to increase the price of natural gas, the natural gas markets in these countries will have a huge shock.

The EU was very dissatisfied with Russia's rogue behavior of increasing prices every year. They immediately lodged a protest with Russia.

However, if protests are useful, then armies and strength are useless.

In particular, natural gas is hard currency and an energy source that everyone must use, and these are all shipped from Russia. Do you like it or not? Anyway, I will raise the price. If you want to buy it, you can pay more.

Seeing Russia's resolute attitude, the first and biggest reaction was the three natural gas companies in Germany. On the one hand, they sent negotiations to Russia, and on the other hand, they also made an emergency announcement. From now on, the price of natural gas will rise by 18%, all of which will

The pressure is passed on to users.

Of course the Germans are not happy. Why do you raise prices just because you say they will?

But on the one hand, the Germans don't like to make trouble, and they are more amenable to strict social systems. On the other hand, they also know that Russia is causing trouble, so large-scale protests did not occur.

But the UK, France, Spain and Italy, which announced price increases at the same time, are not having it so easy.

Especially in Spain and Italy, the national treasury is already so poor that they have cut public expenditures to the extreme, and even delayed the payment of pensions and so on. When faced with the rising prices of energy necessary for life, it is still this extremely cold winter.

, this caused protests of hundreds of thousands of people to erupt again in several countries, with great momentum.

Developed countries like the UK and France are not having it easy either. Due to the economic downturn in recent years, their natural gas operations have been in trouble. Now that Russia has raised prices again, they have no choice but to follow the price increase, but they have been directly affected.

The government's harsh criticism has made me miserable.

It was at this time that Li Dachao, with a group of followers, walked proudly into Northern and Yorkshire Gas Networks Co., Ltd., one of the British natural gas terminal giants.

The British natural gas market is basically a monopoly mechanism. Natural gas is transported to every corner of the UK from offshore gas fields and underground transportation pipelines by British Gas Company and others.

According to regional division, the UK is divided into eight natural gas supplier networks, namely Scotland, North and Yorkshire, Central and Eastern England and East of England, Central and Western England, Wales and South West, South and Southeast, and East London.

All British natural gas users, whether you are a company user or an individual user, can only purchase natural gas from these eight natural gas suppliers, because the natural gas coming from various channels will only be transported to their warehouses and pipelines, and cannot be purchased again.

There is a ninth company that can provide natural gas.

But such a monopoly has not brought much good luck to the eight major natural gas suppliers. Most of them have been losing money in recent years. The only one that can make money is the natural gas network provider in east London, backed by the essence of the United Kingdom.

In London, their natural gas prices are the most expensive and they have the largest consumer market.

In addition, everyone competes to see who loses more.

The largest loss maker last year was Northern and Yorkshire Gas Networks Ltd., with a net loss of £42 million.

However, the natural gas network is a semi-public utility and part of the infrastructure. The profit margin is limited, so if they want to sell it, they can't find anyone to take it over.

And the current pressure to increase prices has put them under even greater pressure. Protests in their subordinate regions have been very serious, causing panic within their company.

When Li Dachao walked into the company, he could clearly feel the panic in their hearts and the joy in their hearts when they saw him coming to negotiate.

Qi Shao is really insightful!

Li Dachao couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

It’s no wonder that my father asked him to have a good relationship with Qi Shao. Even if Qi Shao has a better relationship with his second son, he still needs his intelligence, power and wealth to help him. That’s why there is such a Changyu Group.

Originally, the Li family had been doing preparatory work in Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries. Xiao Qi's intervention would of course reduce the Li family's profits.

Li Dachao was a little unhappy. You, Xiao Qi, are so rich and yet you come to take advantage of us!

But through his first negotiation with Duke Sage and others, Li Dachao realized Xiao Qi's huge influence, which could help him integrate into British investment more easily.

Branson of the Virgin Group also took great care of Li Dachao and sent people over to help him sort out all aspects of the relationship in the UK. This allowed the Changyu Group to be treated very well in the UK and avoid many detours.

This is even more true now. If Qishao hadn't told him about the natural gas accident, he would probably have purchased this company that he had already taken a fancy to last year.

In that case, the price will not be today’s cheap price!

Of course Li Dachao, who sighed, would not have known that if Xiao Qi had not told him this in advance, he would have reached an acquisition agreement with Northern and Yorkshire Gas Network Co., Ltd. at the end of last year, and the acquisition price was US$1 billion.

Because the time to enter was very urgent, this price was much more expensive than the US$900 million that Li Dachao paid for Wales and South West Gas Network Co., Ltd. two years later.

Now Li Dachao can buy it for up to 800 million US dollars, and because the debt ratio of Northern and Yorkshire Natural Gas Network Co., Ltd. is too high, maybe 600 million can be bought. After all, because of the recession in the past two years, they owe

The debt exceeds $500 million!

Of course, when Li Dachao acquired Wales and South West Natural Gas Network Co., Ltd., in addition to US$900 million in cash, their company's debts were as high as US$1.8 billion, so it is still cheaper now.

Before Xiao Qi was reincarnated in his previous life, the Li family only bought these two natural gas network companies and controlled the gas consumption of 30% of British residents. People exclaimed that he controlled the British gas consumption.

In Xiao Qi's view, this is not enough. If the most elite East London Natural Gas Network Company in the UK is added to it, reaching about 50%, then it will really have enough capital to gain a foothold.

It is even better to buy some shares of British Gas, the upstream exploration, production and gas supply company, so that half of the industrial chain is occupied, which is a better allocation of resources.
Chapter completed!