“How much will the Chinese pay?”

Halfway through, Hetherington broke the silence and asked Matsk.

“We have not yet been formally engaged with the Chinese, but there is news that the Chinese may be willing to bear up to $500 million and want to get a 25% interest in the entire project,” Matsk said.

“Fifton percent?This is absolutely unacceptable!”Heinzl yelled like a cat with its tail.

“But they are willing to pay $500 million.”Kelvin reminded me.

“We cannot accept their offer.”Heinzl said categorically.

Matsk looked at Heinzl and asked coldly, “What does Mr. Heinzl mean that Mr. Pumay may increase the amount of money invested in the project?”

Heinzl's face suddenly turned red, he hesitated for a while, and finally said sadly: "Our company's financial situation in the past two years is not ideal, to increase the amount of investment there are some difficulties."But I think we can find more investors in Europe, and there is no need to give them access to our know-how for the money that the Chinese provide.”

Matsk said: "The Commission has done a lot of work to promote in Europe, but so far we have been able to raise only $500 million."Some companies are worried that we can't complete this project, so they have taken a wait-and-see attitude for the time being.I have asked experts to analyze that if we can get $500 million from China, many companies that are currently on the sidelines may have confidence in the project and are willing to fund the project.And if we turn down China’s membership, where are we going to find another $500 million partner?”

“So the committee is inclined to involve the Chinese in this project?”Kelvin asked.

Matsk said: “I am still asking for your opinion.I very much understand your concerns about China's technological progress, but the pressure on the committee's funding is also very clear.I would like to ask you to consider whether there is a way for the best of both worlds.”

“If you can stop the Chinese from having access to the core technology, then it’s okay to involve them in this project.”Of course, the premise is that they are willing to pay enough price for such participation.”Heinzl said.

Hetherington shook his head: "How is it possible that if the Chinese are willing to pay $500 million, then they will get a 25% interest, which will be the largest shareholder in the entire project group."They have full power to demand access to all the technical links, and we cannot stop them from doing so.”

“What if we change the rules?”Heinzl said incessantly.

“Change the rules, what do you mean?”Matsk asked.

Heinzl had a proud smile on his face, saying: "Just now Hetherington said that if the Chinese got $500 million, they can get a 25% interest, I think this algorithm is wrong."Our funding target is indeed $2 billion, but that doesn’t mean the entire project is worth $2 billion.In addition to capital investment, our companies also have technical and reputational investment, which also needs to be calculated in the project value.

If the value of the entire project can be assessed at $5 billion, then the $500 million paid by the Chinese is only equivalent to 10% of the share.Our companies, in accordance with their technical and reputational contributions, should receive a higher share than 10 per cent.”

Matsk frowned and said, “The Chinese will not agree to this condition.”

"Then we can only say sorry to them."Heinzl shrugged his shoulders and said.He did not want the Chinese to participate in the project, and if the Chinese withdrew because of the rules, he was the least psychologically stressed.

Matsk is different, he is the most supportive of the Chinese participation, because the smart woman is difficult to cook for no rice, there is no money can do anything, and the Chinese are just here to send him money, how can he push the Chinese out?

“Technical discount can be considered.But to quantize the technology and reputation we provide at $3 billion is probably unreasonable, and the Chinese will certainly question it.”Matsk euphemistically rebutted Heinzl's opinion.

Keelvey, who was inspired by Heinzl, said: “We can make some concessions on technology and reputation.But at the same time, we can also suggest that in the whole project, the participating units share the various parts of the project according to the direction they are good at.The Chinese have a lot of experience in infrastructure, and I think that the building on the hull can be handed over to them for construction, and by weight, this part of the building has accounted for more than 25% of the entire drilling platform, and the Chinese people should feel satisfied.”

“This is a good way!”

Everyone laughed together, and several people also patted them symbolically to show their appreciation for Kelvey.

The structure of the semi-submersible drilling platform includes three parts: the hull, the upper hull and the column.The hull is also called a floating box or a sink pad, which is a huge water tank, suspended in about 20 meters underwater when working, playing a role in stabilizing the entire drilling platform.The hull, also known as the working platform, is a whole plane, made of steel plate, can also be made of reinforced concrete, on which drilling rigs, cabins and other facilities can be arranged.The column is the column connecting the lower hull and the upper hull, and the diameter of each column can reach several meters.

The working principle of the semi-submersible drilling platform is to rely on the hull floating in the water, supporting the hull through the column, and then arranging drilling equipment and work and living facilities on the hull.Because the hull is suspended deep underwater and has a strong ability to resist the wind and waves, the entire drilling platform can remain stable under complex sea conditions and will not overturn due to wind and waves.

The design and construction of deep-sea semi-submersible rigs involves many key technologies.In terms of design, the scale and structure of the platform should be able to adapt to the requirements of complex sea conditions, especially in the deep sea area, the wind and waves are much larger than the shallow sea area, and the platform design should take into account the lateral wave tear force, the horizontal wave torque, the vertical wave bending moment, the vertical deck mass inertia, the horizontal deck inertia, etc., involving many complex computational models.From the construction point of view, how to choose corrosion-resistant, fatigue-resistant materials, how to design welding processes, etc., are technical problems that need to be broken through.

Relatively speaking, the construction of the hull building is a relatively simple work, although it can not be said that there is no technical difficulty, but it is not enough to be in the category of key technologies.It is hard to say, find a decoration company can do these things down, just master some of these technologies, from being able to build the entire drilling platform is still one hundred and eighty thousand miles away.

Kelvey means that the links that can produce core technologies are in the hands of European companies, and leave some purely labor-intensive work to the Chinese.On the surface, the Chinese have done a lot of things, and even seem to have achieved a lot, but in fact, doing these things can not master any real technology, it is difficult to pose a threat to European companies.

Those who could participate in the project committee were smart people, and Kelvey dialed in a simple place, and everyone understood what he meant, so they agreed.If the Chinese want to participate in this project, let them participate.They can pay, and then get a part of the work task, as for what can be gained after the completion of these tasks, everyone can not care.As for the Chinese to give advice, we also have ready-made reasons to respond, we have the technology, so to do those high-tech work, your technology is not good, let you do the decoration, this makes people do their best, what is wrong?

“Does everyone think this program is feasible?”Although Matsk has a bit of a choking in his heart, he also knows that this may be the bottom line that everyone can accept.

The crowd nodded and said, “Yes, we believe that this program is the most reasonable, and the Chinese people should fully accept it.”

“Well, I have people contacting Chinese officials, and we have a formal meeting.However, I am worried that the Chinese will not be able to fully accept such a plan, and if they insist on obtaining some core technology, can we make some concessions?"Matsk said.

"We can make some concessions appropriately, for example, the water separator design technology of the floating box is very mature in Europe, and it may still be a technical obstacle for the Chinese."We can involve them in this design if they need to.”Kelvey said.

"The computational model of the platform weight, we can also transfer to them, this technology is actually very important, if they can get this technology, they can also take a lot of detours."Hetherington added as well.

Everyone knows that it is impossible to fool the Chinese with something that has no technical content, and the Europeans still need to make some concessions.So, as before, they made a fuss and said some chicken ribs, Matsk recorded one by one, ready to negotiate with the Chinese as a weight.Matsk thought that these technologies could not be presented to the Chinese people, but gradually handed it over in the process of bargaining, making the Chinese feel as if they were taking a lot of advantage.

After all, the Chinese people do not have any accumulation in this regard, and they should be satisfied with these technologies.Matsk consoled himself in his heart.

Three days later, Feng was informed that the EU's Captain Cook project committee was willing to accept China's participation in the development of the project, and that the chairman of the committee, Matsk, would wait for talks with him at the project committee headquarters in the Netherlands.Without delay, Feng Zhichen immediately came to the Netherlands with his team and walked into the office building of the project committee.