152: Chapter 152: Are there any plans to increase procurement funds?

After Colonel Beka finalized the procurement plan, he went directly to Beirut with Mannila.

Since there were no direct flights, they had to take a ship to Beirut.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Li Yi used the Multiverse Arms Trading System to teleport directly to the presidential suite of the Beirut Riviera Hotel.

This presidential suite had now become Li Yi's long-term room.

As the appointed time with Mannila approached, Li Yi headed to the room where the negotiations were to take place.

Mannila and Colonel Beka had already arrived.

Mannila briefly introduced both parties, and the formal negotiations began.

Colonel Beka got straight to the point, saying, "I heard from Mannila that you accept oil and natural gas as payment for arms procurement funds. We currently have 20 million barrels of oil and 50 million cubic meters of natural gas that we can pay you."

"We do accept payment in oil and natural gas. May I ask, where are your oil and natural gas stored?" Li Yi asked.

"They are stored in Benghazi. It is a coastal city in northern Libya," Colonel Beka said.

Li Yi was not very familiar with this city, only knowing that it was located near the Mediterranean Sea.

Naturally, there would be no problem with going to Benghazi to collect the oil and natural gas.

"The price of the oil and natural gas will be 35% lower than the international oil and natural gas prices. You are aware of that, right?" Li Yi asked.

Although Colonel Beka had reservations, the initiative was in Li Yi's hands, so he had to say, "We are aware. We have no objections."

The current international oil price is $71.87 per barrel. Calculated at a 35% discount based on the international oil price, the price is $46.7155 per barrel, and the value of 20 million barrels of oil is $934.31 million.

The international natural gas price is $690.75 per thousand cubic meters. Calculated at a 35% discount based on the international natural gas price, the price is $448.9875 per thousand cubic meters, and the value of 50 million cubic meters of natural gas is $22.45 million.

"The total value of the 20 million barrels of oil and 50 million cubic meters of natural gas you are paying is $956.76 million. Do you have any objections?" Li Yi said after calculating it clearly.

Colonel Beka had made a rough calculation beforehand and estimated the value to be around $950 million, so he said, "No problem, we accept this value."

"Then what weapons and equipment do you intend to purchase with these funds?" Li Yi asked.

Colonel Beka quickly presented the procurement plan he had previously formulated, which mainly consisted of armored vehicles, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles, and so on. The quantity purchased was not large.

After reading it, Li Yi felt a bit disappointed. The weapons and equipment purchased couldn't even compare to Iran, let alone Saudi Arabia, or even Syria.

"Do you have any plans to increase the procurement funds and purchase more weapons and equipment?" Li Yi asked, unwilling to give up.

Colonel Beka naturally wanted to buy more weapons and equipment, but the conditions did not allow for it. The territory controlled by the Libyan National Army was still too small, and the oil and natural gas available for extraction and production were severely insufficient.

Now they needed to buy weapons and equipment to strive to seize more territory and control more oil and natural gas. However, this would take time, and there was no way to increase the procurement funds in the short term.

"Let's not consider increasing the procurement funds for now. If we need to make additional purchases, we will have to wait until next time," Colonel Beka said helplessly.

Li Yi did not persuade him further. He calculated the funds required for the procurement plan provided by Colonel Beka and said, "The procurement funds you need to pay are $1.018 billion. After deducting the $956.76 million you are paying in oil and natural gas, you still need to pay $61.24 million."

"We will pay the shortfall directly in US dollars," Colonel Beka said.

The Libyan National Army possessed some US dollar assets and could fully cover the $61.24 million shortfall. This situation was much better than purchasing weapons and equipment from other arms dealers, as other arms dealers all required payment in US dollars, which was exactly what the Libyan National Army lacked.

"The use of the weapons and equipment you are purchasing is restricted to within the territory of Libya. That's not a problem, right?" Li Yi asked.

Colonel Beka understood this condition. The Libyan National Army hadn't even sorted out domestic affairs yet; they could only focus on domestic battles and had absolutely no energy to clash with other countries, so he said, "No problem."

Li Yi did not mention any deposit terms, directly requiring Colonel Beka to pay all the funds and oil/natural gas before he would deliver the weapons and equipment.

Colonel Beka was naturally unwilling to accept such delivery terms, but the Libyan National Army had no other way to use oil and natural gas to directly purchase weapons and equipment, so in the end, he had to agree helplessly.

Colonel Beka was more concerned about the delivery of the weapons and equipment and asked, "Where will you deliver the weapons and equipment to us? When can they be delivered?"

"We will deliver the weapons and equipment near Benghazi, and we will contact you in advance before delivery. As long as you pay all the procurement funds in a timely manner, we can deliver the weapons and equipment within three days after your payment." Seeing that this was a small order, Li Yi intended to complete the delivery as soon as possible.

Three days was not long, and Colonel Beka was very satisfied. Furthermore, delivering the weapons and equipment near Benghazi, which was controlled by the Libyan National Army, meant he didn't have to worry about other local forces coming to snatch the weapons and equipment.

"Alright. Let's sign the arms trading contract," Colonel Beka said.

After Li Yi and Colonel Beka agreed on the terms of the arms trading contract, both parties quickly signed it. Li Yi's first arms trading contract in Libya was concluded. Although the transaction amount was not very large, it was a breakthrough from zero.

Li Yi had originally wanted to talk to Colonel Beka to understand the strength of the Libyan National Army and see if it was possible to support this force to control the situation in Libya, restore peace to Libya, and thereby extract more oil and natural gas to purchase more weapons and equipment.

But after thinking about it later, he decided to wait and see how the Libyan National Army performed after receiving this batch of weapons and equipment before making a decision. If the Libyan National Army truly made good use of this batch of weapons and equipment, then they could discuss the issue of how to support them.

After the arms trading contract was signed, Mannila quickly found Li Yi, hoping to be paid his agency fee for this arms deal.

This time, the Libyan National Army's procurement order amounted to $1.018 billion. According to the previous agreement, the agency fee was 8%, which was $81.44 million.

"For this arms deal, we will pay you an agency fee of $81.44 million, but it will only be paid after the Libyan National Army has finished paying all the funds and oil and natural gas," Li Yi said to Mannila.

Although Li Yi now had so much money in the Swiss Bank, he was unwilling to pay the agency fee before the transaction was completed, to avoid any situation where the deal might fall through.

"No problem, just remember to pay it," Mannila quickly agreed. With another $80 million-plus coming into his account, Mannila was very satisfied.