114: Chapter 114 This lease is worth at least $126.6 billion

Vyacheslav did not completely fall for the cajoling of Major General Zaha, saying, "Based on Syria's existing oil and natural gas reserves, we can lease a maximum of 600 million barrels of oil and 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Syria."

Calculating based on one-third of Syria's existing oil and natural gas reserves, and then deducting a portion, should be the amount of oil and natural gas that Syria can afford to repay in the future.

After all, Syria will also need to extract oil and natural gas as its main economic source in the future; it cannot use everything to repay the oil and natural gas currently being leased.

Major General Zaha was very happy in his heart to hear that there was so much oil and natural gas available for lease, but on the surface, he still had to strive for more, saying, "Can the scale of the oil and natural gas lease be increased further? Leasing 800 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas? It will be absolutely no problem for Syria to repay this much oil and natural gas in the future."

Vyacheslav considered it. Russia currently had a somewhat large quantity of stored oil and natural gas, so increasing the lease by this much would not be a problem, so he said, "Fine, we can lease a maximum of 800 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Syria."

"That's great." Major General Zaha was very happy; he did not expect that Russia would actually agree.

"Let's discuss the issue of Syria's future repayment. We require the establishment of an oil company in Syria to independently extract oil and natural gas within Syria." Vyacheslav put forward his demand.

"That is absolutely no problem." Major General Zaha had no objections.

"The oil company will prioritize choosing those oil and gas fields with abundant oil and natural gas reserves, and the extraction schedule can be arranged according to Russia's needs, without being influenced by Syria." Vyacheslav continued to set conditions.

"This can also be agreed to. But the total reserves of the selected oil and gas fields can only be slightly higher than the amount of oil and natural gas currently being leased; they cannot be far higher than the leased amount." Major General Zaha naturally did not want Russia to control too many oil and gas fields.

"This can be discussed in detail after Syria reclaims the oil and gas fields in the future. However, the total reserves of the oil and gas fields must be at least 20% higher than the 800 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas. If the extraction difficulty of the oil and gas fields is high, it must be higher than 30%."

If it were 20% higher, Russia could control oil and gas fields in Syria with 960 million barrels of oil and 240 billion cubic meters of natural gas, accounting for less than half of Syria's oil and natural gas reserves, and Vyacheslav believed that Syria would agree.

"I think it is sufficient for the total reserves of the oil and gas fields provided by Syria to be 20% higher; it should not be higher than 30%, otherwise, there will be relatively few oil and gas fields that Syria can utilize." Major General Zaha did not completely agree.

Vyacheslav glanced at Major General Zaha; it seemed Major General Zaha had made his final decision, so he said, "Fine. The total reserves of the oil and gas fields that Russia needs to control must be at least 20% higher than the total amount of leased oil and natural gas. This must be clearly stipulated in the oil and natural gas lease agreement."

Vyacheslav was not worried that Syria would go back on its word in the future; as long as the oil and gas fields were controlled, when to extract, and how much oil and natural gas to extract, would be entirely decided by Russia.

The oil in the Persian Gulf region is of better quality than Russia's oil, so for Russia, it was a profit.

After all, they were exchanging relatively lower-quality oil for higher-quality oil. Although funds would need to be invested when extracting in the future, this cost could be fully covered by the additional oil reserves.

"Then, how long does Russia intend to take to deliver the 800 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas that it is leasing to us?" Major General Zaha asked.

Vyacheslav estimated the current oil and natural gas storage situation. Although the oil and natural gas currently being exported to Europe had not completely ceased, most of it had already been suspended, and this oil and natural gas could be leased to Syria.

"In the first year, we can lease 600 million barrels of oil and 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and in the second year, we will deliver the remaining 200 million barrels of oil and 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas in full."

"That is acceptable. We agree to lease on this annual basis." Major General Zaha quickly agreed; after all, the lease would be delivered in two years, and the first year accounted for the majority.

"For the oil and natural gas leased in the first year, we can deliver 300 million barrels of oil and 90 billion cubic meters of natural gas within one month, and for the following three months, we will deliver 100 million barrels of oil and 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas each month."

Vyacheslav wanted to clear out Russia's currently backlogged oil and natural gas as soon as possible, so as to avoid occupying a large number of oil and natural gas storage warehouses and affecting the normal extraction activities of oil companies.

"We agree. We hope Russia completes the delivery of all oil and natural gas as soon as possible." Major General Zaha would naturally agree; with such a fast delivery speed, Syria could get more weapons and equipment as soon as possible.

Vyacheslav subsequently confirmed the various terms and contents of the oil and natural gas lease agreement with Major General Zaha, agreed upon the rights and obligations of both parties, and finally finalized the first draft of the oil and natural gas lease agreement.

As long as both governments agree to sign it, this oil and natural gas lease agreement for 800 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be considered reached.

Major General Zaha made a rough calculation based on the oil and natural gas prices reached with Chaos Company last time: oil was calculated at $45.526 per barrel, so 800 million barrels of oil were worth $36.4 billion; natural gas was calculated at $450.5 per thousand cubic meters, so 200 billion cubic meters were worth $90.1 billion.

The oil and natural gas that Syria is leasing from Russia this time is worth at least $126.6 billion. With so much capital used to procure weapons and equipment, Syria's military could be armed to the teeth, and by then, launching an offensive against the USA and the Opposition Armed Forces it supports within Syria would be absolutely no problem.

Unless the USA unites with its lackeys again to continue sending large numbers of troops and fighter jets to Syria, Syria would be able to root out the USA and the Opposition Armed Forces it supports in one fell swoop, and by then, Syria would be able to freely and normally carry out various tasks and restore domestic economic order.

Vyacheslav was also very satisfied with this oil and natural gas lease agreement. Syria leased 800 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas this time, which could be said to have consumed more than half of the oil and natural gas that Russia had originally planned to export to Europe, at least for now, there would not be so much oil and natural gas backlogged.

Otherwise, the amount of natural gas that Russia would have to burn in vain every day would be significant. Although Russia did not care about this small amount of wasted natural gas, it could not let such wasteful consumption continue to happen.

It just so happened that by leasing the oil and natural gas, they had exchanged it for Syria's oil and gas fields. When they extracted them in the future, Russia should be able to sell that oil and natural gas at a higher price. After all, the quality of oil and natural gas in the Persian Gulf region is higher.