NationStates Jolt Archive

CNN:

Today Buy & Sell, Inc. has announced that due to bankruptcy from it's oil company Liquid Gold, Inc. it has sold the New Gold Isles, just north of Vantanas, to the government of the Vantanas. You may remember that Buy & Sell, Inc. was once Bucktooth Beaver, Inc., the legacy of oil tycoon Bucktooth Beaver, who died in the Nova Brittanica incedent.

Anyways, the People's Republic has announced that it is selling the New Gold Isles, and all the oil and structures on it. President Steelhammer was quoted giving a reason, "It's far away from Footracer Province, our northernmost province, and is too small as well as uninhabited. We have enough oil in our reserve to last us for some time, so there is no need to keep them. We might as well make a little bit of money, eh?"

The auction starts at fifty million Universal Standard Dollars per island, of which there are five. The isles are Oil, Gold, Wealth, Dollar, and Rock. They each have all necessary equipment for retrieving and refining with them, and each have an equal amount of oil. The auction ends at this time tommorow. (see post time)*

*might be extended or shortened

We shall place a bid of 400 million dollars for all the islands.

OOC: Vontanas, what is the exchange rate?

IC: The Ministry of Finance bids 755 million Universal Standard Dollars for all the islands

We shall place a bid of 400 million dollars for all the islands.

Is this per island? If you're going to buy for all, tell me what it is per island. That's not particulary for you, Scandinvan, but just a general message.

OOC: Vontanas, what is the exchange rate?

OOC: USD is Universal Standard Dollar

http://www.home.unix-ag.org/simon/gi...globe_demo.jpg



The Vetakan League of Buisness


To: Today Buy & Sell, Inc
From: The Vetakan League of Buisness

Subject: An Offer

Dear Sir/Ma'am:

The Vetakan League of Business would like to make an opening offer of 800 Billion USD for all Islands. That would work out at 160 Billion USD per Island.

Yours Current League Director Alan Henry Norrington.

Is this per island? If you're going to buy for all, tell me what it is per island. That's not particulary for you, Scandinvan, but just a general message.



OOC: USD is Universal Standard DollarGotta ya yet that is for all of them.

We bid now bid a trillion dollars at the price of 200 billion dollars for each island.

http://www.home.unix-ag.org/simon/gi...globe_demo.jpg


The Vetakan League of Buisness

To: Today Buy & Sell, Inc
From: The Vetakan League of Buisness

Subject: An Offer

Dear Sir/Ma'am:

The Vetakan League of Business in order to relect our Scandinvan opposition bids 2 Trillion USD at 400 Billion Dollars per Island.

Yours Current League Director Alan Henry Norrington

We bid 500 billion for Oil isle.

ooc: Maybe I should auction off some oil rich land..you could rebankroll an entire government off bids

The United Clans received notification of the ongoing auction along with most nations. Although Tyria was home to significant oil deposits, most of them resided within the Crystal Desert, which was a holy place and thus untouchable. The rest were buried beneath the massive Maguuma Jungle, which would require too much natural devastation for any Charr to be willing to try. So they were always interested in acquiring new sources for their ever-expanding fuel requirements, at least until alternative fuel sources were developed in the future.

The announcement was discussed in some detail by the Clan Leaders shortly after the start of the midday session of Council.

It was dismissed soon afterwards, however. The Clan Leaders noticed numerous countries spending disproportionate sums of money on the islands - either in attempts to simply drive up the cost for political enemies, or simply in displays of careless mismanagement of their finances - and yet, there was no clear indication as to what they would actually be getting for their money. No survey had been released documenting the natural resources that were claimed to exist on the island. The announcement mentioned that the machinery existed to extract these resources, but made no mention of the extent, quality or sophistication of this equipment. Indeed, it was quite vague on all accounts. The Council would not be prepared to flippantly spend so much money on a concrete venture, let alone this.

Burntfur in particular, being the Charr with whom most major spend decisions had to be signed off with, found this amusing. Any sane government would be at least slightly cautious when releasing any sum of money, let alone the hundreds of billions of NS dollars being thrown around at this 'auction', when the product in question was devoid of any details. Some countries were bidding sizeable portions of their gross domestic product on these things! If nothing else, Burntfur had to compliment the cunning of the Vontanas government, who had the potential to make vast sums of money specifically because they were being so vague. For all they knew, there could be a small black pond and three sparkling stones on the islands, and nothing more, and Vontanas would be laughing all the way to the bank. Nobody seemed compelled to find out one way or the other, and Burntfur certainly wasn't going to do their jobs for them.

Burntfur admired the cunning of the Vontanas government once again as the announcement was pushed to one side and the Council discussion was moved on to more important matters of state.

HUGE SNIP

OOC: I don't necesarrily know much about oil, so this may seem a bit stupid.\

IC:

Oil Reserves on Isles and Surrounding Waters: 376,547,692 Barrels
Technology: State-of-the-Art (expensive top-of-the-line modern, whatever that is)

OOC: Like I said...

http://www.home.unix-ag.org/simon/gi...globe_demo.jpg


The Vetakan League of Buisness

To: Today Buy & Sell, Inc
From: The Vetakan League of Buisness

Subject: An Offer

Dear Sir/Ma'am:

The Vetakan League of Business in order to relect our Scandinvan opposition bids 2 Trillion USD at 400 Billion Dollars per Island.

Yours Current League Director Alan Henry NorringtonWe bid a total of 2.5 trillion at the cost of 500 billoon an island.

OOC: Oh I wasn't ripping on you, that was IC, and the Charr didn't say anything to your guys. I actually thought it was pretty funny that you were getting trillions of dollars out of people without telling them what they were actually getting. In fact, that could even have the makings of a good RP... selling somebody a bunch of islands for far more than they are actually worth.

In fact I think you'll still manage to do that at this rate :D.

We bid 500 billion for Oil isle.

i already put up 500 for this one, so you have to go higher. Actually, i'll put up 550 billion for Oil Island

i already put up 500 for this one, so you have to go higher. Actually, i'll put up 550 billion for Oil IslandOOC: Exceeds your govermnment budget by over 2 time, though their is leniacy given with budgets due to the fact calculators are not entirely accurate the best I have seen is to increase their budget by 1.33 times then the one given by them so your bid is impossible.

OOC: I don't necesarrily know much about oil, so this may seem a bit stupid.\

IC:

Oil Reserves on Isles and Surrounding Waters: 376,547,692 Barrels
Technology: State-of-the-Art (expensive top-of-the-line modern, whatever that is)

OOC: Like I said...OOC: Well, now I shall increase that a few dozen fold, sell it, have a steady income, and use the land for my own purpouses and possible colonization.

OOC: whatever. I didnt know we had to follow the calcs. What happens if u sell stuff? It doesnt get figured into the calcs. i give up.

OOC: Well, now I shall increase that a few dozen fold, sell it, have a steady income, and use the land for my own purpouses and possible colonization.

OOC: The isles are mountainous and small, so it would be a pretty minute colony. Once the oil dries up, it will probably become nothing.

OOC: Oh well, I have been looking for a way to get rid of rebels and criminals so a few hard labor colonies will be good after they have been used, to note I plan to say they are about 6000 squre miles in total area for all the islands.

Always could make a few Resorts... they are quite useful.

OOC: The isles are mountainous and small, so it would be a pretty minute colony. Once the oil dries up, it will probably become nothing.OOC: Oh well, I have been looking for a way to get rid of rebels and criminals so a few hard labor colonies will be good after they have been used, to note I plan to say they are about 6000 squre miles in total area for all the islands.

OOC: whatever. I didnt know we had to follow the calcs. What happens if u sell stuff? It doesnt get figured into the calcs. i give up.

OOC: A lot of people keep track of the money they make from storefronts and the like and then add those figures into their estimated GDP, so you could do that - just remember to knock off some production costs to get a net profit. Even so, just remember that you still have to fund any roads, hospitals, schools, armed forces, etc that your nation has for the rest of the year as well, so even if you can bump up your budget, it's still not advisable to spend particularly large chunks of it on any one thing. Apart from anything else you'd be putting all of your eggs in one basket. But, don't worry about it too much. I envisage this auction developing into something else entirely eventually...

OOC: Hmm... what about secret resorts where the elite and nobility from around the Empire go to hunt criminals sentenced to death.

OOC: Stop reading the Most Dangerous Game.

Always could make a few Resorts... they are quite useful.OOC: Hmm... what about secret resorts where the elite and nobility from around the Empire go to hunt criminals sentenced to death.

OOC: Okay... if you get the isles I'll let you mess with the geography, but no messing with oil numbers. Anyone else surprised someone from the CA isn't here yet?

Grand General Asuka looked at the report about The New Gold Islands. many Nations were wanting that for it's Oil. Since She was also The CEO of HatarOil, She Decided that Hataria could use The New Gold Islands along with Hataria's Own Oil Produceing Territories of Algeria, Morocco and The Black Islands.

"Tell Vontanas that we Bid 10 Trillion." She said.

ooc: why do I get the feeling this is going to end up in a war?

OOC: Stop reading the Most Dangerous Game.OOC: Never I love it to much.:D

ooc: why do I get the feeling this is going to end up in a war?

OOC: Well, everything ends up in war, and Hataria just posted, so, you've got the basic ingredients set.

Grand General Asuka looked at the report about The New Gold Islands. many Nations were wanting that for it's Oil. Since She was also The CEO of HatarOil, She Decided that Hataria could use The New Gold Islands along with Hataria's Own Oil Produceing Territories of Algeria, Morocco and The Black Islands.

"Tell Vontanas that we Bid 10 Trillion." She said.

SIC:

Secure Highly Encrypted Telegram:
TO: Grand General Asuka
FROM: People's Republic of Vantanas
[HEAVILY ENCRYPTED] For a mere one trillion additional USDs, we will end this auction immediantly. This message will delete itself in five minutes. [/HEAVILY ENCRYPTED]

SIC:

Secure Highly Encrypted Telegram:
TO: Grand General Asuka
FROM: People's Republic of Vantanas
[HEAVILY ENCRYPTED] For a mere one trillion additional USDs, we will end this auction immediantly. This message will delete itself in five minutes. [/HEAVILY ENCRYPTED]

ooc: wow were smart. hmm, we can make trillions more money, but we are offering them for only 11 trillion.

The Hatarians up their bid to 12 trillion

"Thank goodness for the strong Gold Denarius then I suppose," mentioned the Minister of Finance as the bid was pushed up to 2.7 trillion per island (i.e. 13 trillion for the lot)

[OOC: In order for the last bid ($13 trillion) to even break even on extraction costs alone selling at $40 (you can buy oil for ~$25 on NS, so that's a generous estimate) there would have to be almost 350 billion barrels of oil - that is more than 1/3 the total amount of oil thought to exist in the entire world. Of course, I'm ignoring refining costs here, as well as transportation costs, and I'm assuming that your extraction costs are the lowest possible (since you're extracting from the sea, they will be higher). If you take all this into account, you're probably going to be betting on there being as much oil there as in the entire RL world if you even want to match your costs, and even then that's only if you get the high $40 sales price.

Now, when I started this post I had thought that Vontanas had not stated how much oil there was and, although you were all running an insane risk bidding so much on the off-chance that the islands contained a HUGE amount of oil, it was at least possible that they did. But wait - Vontanas has in fact told us how much oil is. There are 376,547,692 (let's round it up to 380,000,000 barrels). So, in order for the $13 trillion bid to break even, completely ignoring all production, sales, refining and transporation costs, you're going to have to sell each barrel for $35,000(!!!) Are you people insane?! At $40 per barrel, the oil is only worth $15.2 billion gross - you lot had exceeded this sixty-six times by the 4th bid.

To summarise: This auction is the stupidest thing I've seen in a long time.]

[OOC: In order for the last bid ($13 trillion) to even break even on extraction costs alone selling at $40 (you can buy oil for ~$25 on NS, so that's a generous estimate) there would have to be almost 350 billion barrels of oil - that is more than 1/3 the total amount of oil thought to exist in the entire world. Of course, I'm ignoring refining costs here, as well as transportation costs, and I'm assuming that your extraction costs are the lowest possible (since you're extracting from the sea, they will be higher). If you take all this into account, you're probably going to be betting on there being as much oil there as in the entire RL world if you even want to match your costs, and even then that's only if you get the high $40 sales price.

Now, when I started this post I had thought that Vontanas had not stated how much oil there was and, although you were all running an insane risk bidding so much on the off-chance that the islands contained a HUGE amount of oil, it was at least possible that they did. But wait - Vontanas has in fact told us how much oil is. There are 376,547,692 (let's round it up to 380,000,000 barrels). So, in order for the $13 trillion bid to break even, completely ignoring all production, sales, refining and transporation costs, you're going to have to sell each barrel for $35,000(!!!) Are you people insane?! At $40 per barrel, the oil is only worth $15.2 billion gross - you lot had exceeded this sixty-six times by the 4th bid.

To summarise: This auction is the stupidest thing I've seen in a long time.]

OOC: Bah, you spoiled my fun! I was going to announce the figures after the successful bid was accepted!

OOC: The Empire is not so much interested in the oil, but the other resources that could exist within these isles; especially of the gold and silver variety. The Empire needs millions of ounces of these metals per annum simply to keep up with the number of coins that need to be minted. The oil is not too important to the Empire.

[OOC: OOC: Bah, you spoiled my fun! I was going to announce the figures after the successful bid was accepted!

lol, that would have been a lot funnier admittedly.

But still, I find it hard to rationalise dozens of governments and companies making huge bids just because IT'S OIL!1!! without even working out how much they're buying or what it's worth or whether or not they can ever hope to make a profit on it.

OOC: The Empire is not so much interested in the oil, but the other resources that could exist within these isles; especially of the gold and silver variety. The Empire needs millions of ounces of these metals per annum simply to keep up with the number of coins that need to be minted. The oil is not too important to the Empire.
He hasn't said how much of those things he has either, or even that he has them at all. I can't see anything islands so small could possibly have that would be worth buying for $13 trillion (or even $100 billion), nor why you mint coins out of precious metals.]

The Hatarians raise the Bid to 20 Trillion.

The Vetakan League of Buisness raises its bid to 30 Trillion Dollars making that 6 Trillion for each island. The League is most interested in the land the fact their is oil their is just a black gold bonus. The League has many many plans for the land.

The League.

[OOC: Take these fools' money and run, Vontanas.

OOC: lol at this topic when you have 07 nations bidding more than their GDP for a tiny bit of oil.

The Government of Binaria shall bid 100 trillion, Billion Yen!Mu-hahahahaha

OOC: You people are crazy. Why keep biding higher than 15 billion when people tell you that to make a profit you have to sell each barrel for tens of thousands of dollars?

OOC: Sod the Oil. I want the land. ^Evil Laugh^ Vontanas what is the climate like for the islands?

[OOC: In the opening post Vontanas says one of the reasons he's selling them is that they're "too small" for any other useful purpose.

People on NS really will buy anything, and pay almost any amount for it.]

OOC: Praetonia: You'll also note that later in the thread I stated that the winner of the auction could change anything they wanted, except for the oil that is there. A;so, I should take the money and run.

IC:

The Vantanians have announced there is only five minutes (from post time) left in the auction.

The Vetakans have won the auction! The islands will be transferred after the money is recieved.

The League of Vetakan Buisness

OBSAT Secure Uplink Confirmed:

Activate Account **** **** **** 8473

Target Accout **** **** **** ****

Transfer Amount ****************************** (More Stars Than Requried)

........... Working...............


Transfer Complete



OOC: Praetonia two words "Shut Up" all you have done in this thread is bitch about stuff.

OOC: Vontanas whats the Climate like?

The League of Vetakan Buisness

OBSAT Secure Uplink Confirmed:

Activate Account **** **** **** 8473

Target Accout **** **** **** ****

Transfer Amount ****************************** (More Stars Than Requried)

........... Working...............


Transfer Complete



OOC: Praetonia two words "Shut Up" all you have done in this thread is bitch about stuff.

OOC: Vontanas whats the Climate like?

After recieving the money, the People's Republic transferred ownership of the New Gold Isles to Vetaka.

OOC: Mild summers and winters, year long percipitation

[OOC:
He hasn't said how much of those things he has either, or even that he has them at all. I can't see anything islands so small could possibly have that would be worth buying for $13 trillion (or even $100 billion), nor why you mint coins out of precious metals.]

The Empire uses a gold standard and it is commonplace for people to use coins (the average weekly wage is a few Gold Denarii). Our small change is made up of silver coins.

Anyways, the Ministry of Finance has lost the auction and we congratulate The League of Vetakan Buisness on winning the auction.

The League of Vetakan Buisness

Excellent thank you. It has been a pleasure to of done buisness with you. It has also been a pleasure to of competed with all interested parties within this situation. The League would like to know what the Construction Laws are like within Vontanas.

The League has at the moment no intention to extract the Oil we are currently investigating a number of options.

Yours Current League Director Alan Henry Norrington.



OOC: The League is not part of the Vetakan Govenment.

The League of Vetakan Buisness

Excellent thank you. It has been a pleasure to of done buisness with you. It has also been a pleasure to of competed with all interested parties within this situation. The League would like to know what the Construction Laws are like within Vontanas.

The League has at the moment no intention to extract the Oil we are currently investigating a number of options.

Yours Current League Director Alan Henry Norrington.



OOC: The League is not part of the Vetakan Govenment.


The People's Republic is no longer in control of the New Gold Isles, and the sole authority over the New Gold Isles is the Vetakan League of Businesses, the winners of the auction.