I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 755 - 653: Production Supply

Since most of the drilling platforms are submerged under the ice layer, reusing them is out of the question.

So, after the industrial ship landed, it began drilling anew.

Thanks to Chen Xin’s design for the drill on the industrial ship, coupled with the fact that the ice layer isn’t difficult to drill, and the North Sea Oilfield being a shallow sea oilfield, the re-drilling posed no trouble for the industrial ship.

Moreover, after drilling through several dozen meters of ice, they were delighted to find marine life existing in the flowing seawater beneath the ice.

"How are things underneath the ice layer?" Chen Xin watched the staff operating the equipment to explore the ocean beneath the ice, inquiring with concern and curiosity.

"Besides the microorganisms we discovered earlier during the seawater testing, the sonar also detected some fish schools and marine life," the staff replied to Chen Xin, while pointing at images displayed on the instrument screen and explaining, "This should be a school of fish, but there aren’t many. The previous disasters have severely damaged the marine ecology in this area. Although there’s been some recovery over the past two years, the overall numbers are still scarce."

Hearing the staff’s words, Chen Xin furrowed his brow in thought and asked him, "Can these fishery resources be exploited now?"

"Well... I’m not a professional, so it’s hard to comment. But from the current situation, large-scale fishing is still not advisable," the staff shook his head, disagreeing with the exploitation of these fishery resources that have only just begun to recover, and he humorously added, "Moreover, it’s impractical to harvest them; a hole can be drilled in the ice, but breaking it open for fishing is unrealistic."

"That’s true, but let’s not rule out the possibility just yet. Send the data back home to let the relevant professionals evaluate whether these fishery resources can be utilized." Chen Xin also felt that breaking through the ice to fish was unrealistic, but if these fishery resources could be utilized, it would be beneficial.

So he instructed the staff to gather the data and send it back to the country for professional evaluation.

Aside from the fishery resources, their main objective in the North Sea is oil extraction.

Although they easily drilled a well using the oilfield distribution map provided by the British and struck oil, they also had to construct the drilling platform, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty of extraction.

After all, no country in the world has attempted drilling and extracting marine oil on the ice surface.

Even the Lucians drilled on the sea surface, not from platforms built on ice.

However, this doesn’t faze Chen Xin. He had the industrial ship use resources brought from the industrial base to lay a basic extraction platform, then upgraded and modified it to adapt to the current icy environment, and the oil well was completed.

However, since the supporting infrastructure hasn’t been constructed, and there’s no pipeline to transport the extracted oil, the oil well isn’t yet operational.

Once the industrial ship ensured an oil well, the base quickly sent new supplies via small cargo land ships, allowing them to start building petrochemical equipment and the essential synthetic protein factory.

Compared to oil extraction, the seawater beneath the ice provides convenience to the synthetic protein factory, as it is rich in nutrients.

Given the previous mass die-off of marine life, the corpses of dead fish supplied abundant nutrients to the ocean.

Although this causes ocean eutrophication and affects marine ecology, under current conditions, the original marine ecosystem already collapsed, signaling the establishment stage of a new ecological system where this nutrient-rich ocean has little adverse effect.

Even though only a few marine species can adapt to such environments, this seawater can be used as raw material for synthetic protein production.

Although originally planned to use crude oil as the raw material for synthetic protein production, since nutrient-rich seawater is available for use, Chen Xin didn’t mind altering the plan.

Oil is an essential industrial resource and a critical energy source for human civilization. Even though Flame Country, thanks to Chen Xin’s efforts, has extensively utilized nuclear energy, reducing oil consumption as an energy source, there’s still significant industrial demand.

As for Europe, it’s even more so—still stuck in its original energy structure, European countries are exceedingly hungry for oil.

If more oil resources can be obtained, using the practically infinite seawater as a substitute for synthetic protein production, it couldn’t be better.

Thus, Chen Xin quickly adjusted the synthetic protein factory’s design, shifting to using seawater as the primary raw material.

For others, this might mean scrap everything and redesign from scratch, but for Chen Xin, it’s just a matter of thought; even built, a simple upgrade can solve the issue.

With Chen Xin’s assistance, the base construction quickly completed and finally began official operation.

The oil well pumped extracted oil to an adjacent chemical plant for distillation, sorting various products properly, and synthetic protein foods produced by the synthetic protein factory were transported back to the industrial base via small cargo land ships.

Various petroleum products were used as industrial raw materials to meet production needs, and after secondary processing, they became new raw materials and products, ultimately producing weapons and equipment needed on the frontline, along with secondary processed synthetic protein foods, delivered to the frontline.

These supplies are like manna from heaven for the frontline. Although not numerous, the precious fuel could revive many armored troops and air force grounded due to lack of fuel, bringing warmth to warriors on the frontline.

After all, the European Defense Line doesn’t have Chen Xin’s Energy Tower or heating system, so aside from burning something for warmth, they can only rely on bunkers and similar fortifications for warmth. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

As for anything else... perhaps shivering a bit can make these soldiers feel slightly warmer.

And although synthetic protein foods are difficult to describe in terms of taste and texture, for the frontline combat units already long deprived of food, having something to eat and filling their bellies is already wonderful, who would care about the taste and texture of these synthetic proteins?

It’s just like during World War II, the American’s canned luncheon meat was notoriously awful, but when these reached the frontlines, they were still very popular, because they could fill bellies.