Hendryk
Banned
This is something I intended as an AH spin-off of "Superpower Empire", but let's first see how it works as a free-standing WI.
So, in OTL, the Daqing oil field, in the northern Manchurian province of Heilongjiang, was discovered in 1958. It contained 16 billion barrels of oil. The POD: one day in 1938, a Japanese officer stationed near Daqing notices during a morning walk a thick, gooey matter seeping to the ground. Upon closer inspection, he realizes it to be petroleum. He writes of the discovery to a former university buddy of his, who went into geology. A few weeks later, his friend arrives and, after making a few tests and surveys, come to the conclusion that he's standing on top of one of East Asia's largest oil fields.
The war against China is raging to the south, and while Japanese forces were able to destroy the Nationalists' elite German-trained divisions at the end of the previous year, the conflict has since then turned into a vicious war of attrition that is slowly but surely eating away at Japan's strategic resources, not least of which oil. Already contingency plans are being drawn by the top brass to deal with a possible embargo on US oil exports, and some are beginning to cast a very interested eye on the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. In this context, the discovery of such a major oil field in Manchukuo, for all intents and purposes a puppet state of Japan, is a godsend. Within months work has begun on building extraction facilities and a pipeline to the port of Dairen, where refineries start springing from the ground.
What next? How does this windfall change Japan's strategic aims? What are the consequences for East Asia?
So, in OTL, the Daqing oil field, in the northern Manchurian province of Heilongjiang, was discovered in 1958. It contained 16 billion barrels of oil. The POD: one day in 1938, a Japanese officer stationed near Daqing notices during a morning walk a thick, gooey matter seeping to the ground. Upon closer inspection, he realizes it to be petroleum. He writes of the discovery to a former university buddy of his, who went into geology. A few weeks later, his friend arrives and, after making a few tests and surveys, come to the conclusion that he's standing on top of one of East Asia's largest oil fields.
The war against China is raging to the south, and while Japanese forces were able to destroy the Nationalists' elite German-trained divisions at the end of the previous year, the conflict has since then turned into a vicious war of attrition that is slowly but surely eating away at Japan's strategic resources, not least of which oil. Already contingency plans are being drawn by the top brass to deal with a possible embargo on US oil exports, and some are beginning to cast a very interested eye on the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. In this context, the discovery of such a major oil field in Manchukuo, for all intents and purposes a puppet state of Japan, is a godsend. Within months work has begun on building extraction facilities and a pipeline to the port of Dairen, where refineries start springing from the ground.
What next? How does this windfall change Japan's strategic aims? What are the consequences for East Asia?