Chapter 372: Natural Gas Popsicles

Su Hao leaned back in his chair, lost in thought.
For no apparent reason, his mysterious intuition had inexplicably aligned itself with the seemingly unrelated field of "food," which was quite bizarre.
Not to mention, that fleeting moment of inspiration last time, the hallucination he "saw"...
The ear-piercing explosion, the piercing, desperate screams—just recalling them sent chills down his spine.
Could it be... that war is really about to break out?
But in this day and age, who dares to easily launch a large-scale war?
If it gets out of control and escalates into a world war, wouldn't everyone be in danger?
At that point, forget about food; hoarding anything would be useless.
"Anything else?"
"Ah, yes. An urgent report just received: the German energy giant E.ON has suffered heavy losses in this Robin Hood-like financial storm and is now facing a severe liquidity crisis!"
Su Hao raised an eyebrow, signaling him to continue.
"And what's truly critical is that, against the backdrop of collapsing global natural gas demand and a wave of cancellations, E.ON, due to its depleted cash flow, can't even afford to pay the penalties for canceling shipments!
They have no choice but to accept high-priced long-term natural gas contracts from the US, and then…
They're selling them off in the spot market at any cost!"
"So…"
"So they've created a 'supply tsunami' in the spot market!
A huge supply has suddenly appeared in the market, and prices are plummeting, already far below cost!"
"…!"
In that instant!
Su Hao's mysterious intuition, like a plucked string, resonated!
The signal was crystal clear, pointing directly to natural gas!
It seemed to urge him in his mind: Buy it!
***
"What's going on? Natural gas?!"
Du Yuanhang of Fanghuan Shipping looked at the report, his face full of question marks.
"Mr. Du, we just received the order, it's extremely urgent," the secretary reported hurriedly.
"Chairman Su ordered us to sweep back every last bit of natural gas we can find on the international market, especially the gas that Germany is eager to get rid of!"
There are essentially two ways to transport natural gas.
One is to lay pipelines, a cross-border "south-to-north gas transfer."
The other is to freeze it into "natural gas popsicles" at -162 degrees Celsius, technically called liquefied natural gas (LNG), and then transport it ship by ship using specially designed "sea refrigerators," that is, LNG carriers.
"The ships aren't a problem; we have plenty of connections. But why is Chairman Su suddenly asking us to stockpile this stuff?"
This was the question on most people's minds.
The cause dates back to the "Robin Hood" storm that Su Hao had orchestrated.
This financial storm detonated landmines in multiple markets, nearly crippling the German energy giant E.ON.
E.ON's cash flow was on the verge of collapse, and in order to recoup funds, it was frantically selling off its mountains of natural gas at rock-bottom prices!
The problem was that there was absolutely no market demand for this stuff. It was taking up space and burning through cash; it was a hot potato, and nobody wanted it.
"So, Chairman Su is taking advantage of this critical juncture to have us sweep back all these hot potatoes?"
"That's right! The price right now is practically dirt cheap. IANG is burning through cash in their warehouses every day; they're more anxious than anyone else."
"I understand buying cheap stuff, but... the problem is, what are we going to do with this stuff?
We can't just bring it back and burn it ourselves, can we? And there's nowhere to store it!"
That's the crux of the matter. What's the point of buying a bunch of natural gas that we don't need, even if it's cheap?
"Did Chairman Su say where the goods are going?"
"Yes! Canada!"
"Huh? Canada?"
"Mr. Du, have you forgotten? Chairman Su recently approved our group's acquisition of several large grain companies in Canada, right?
It's in Alberta, the breadbasket of North America, famous for wheat."
"Oh, I've heard about that."
Chairman Su's recent actions have indeed been a bit unpredictable, making it hard to understand.
Suddenly, on a whim, he plundered all the major wheat-producing companies in Canada, like fleecing sheep.
"But do you know what else Alberta has besides wheat?"
"What else?"
"A gigantic natural gas storage facility! Let me put it this way, globally, you can count on one hand the number of facilities that can rival that Alberta storage facility in size!"
"What?!"
Du Yuanhang felt a bolt of lightning strike his mind!
Chairman Su had recently acquired a whole bunch of companies in Alberta, Canada, and coincidentally, there was such a massive natural gas storage facility in that very province!
"And the timing...it's too precise.
When Chairman Su started acquiring those companies in Alberta, the 'Robin Hood' financial crisis hadn't even officially erupted yet!
In other words, before Ion collapsed, he had already secured that territory!"
"Wait, you mean, Chairman Su...he foresaw all of this?!"
"Think about it, the timeline is so coincidental...it's chilling.
Chairman Su precisely entered Alberta before the financial crisis hit.
After the crisis, he was just waiting for others to sell off natural gas like garbage, then he swallowed it all up at rock-bottom prices!
If this wasn't pre-planned, I'd eat this keyboard on the spot!"
The "Robin Hood" incident, on the surface, appears to be a massive financial machinations orchestrated by Fanghuan Exchange to eliminate a formidable competitor.
But what if that was just a means to an end, and the real purpose wasn't it from the beginning?
"You mean... Chairman Su's goal from the beginning wasn't 'Robin Hood,' but rather to use it to manipulate a much larger chessboard?"
"That's right! Chairman Su's real purpose is to take down 'Robin Hood,' ignite a financial storm, trigger a chain reaction, and thus affect the food and energy landscape in Canada and Germany!"
All of this stems from 'Robin Hood,' the trigger point!
But if we trace it further back, the source of all this, the initial singularity that ignited all the chain reactions, was that world-shaking... Game Station short squeeze!