Petrochem

Petrochemical Associates International is a megacorporation whose primary focus is the petrochemical industry. Petrochem is the world's largest producer of the synthetic alcohol fuel CHOOH2 (under license from Biotechnica), the primary fuel source for the mid-21st century. Petrochem control millions of acres of arable land across the NUSA. They are also one of the world's largest oil producers next to SovOil. With the oil supply dwindling, most remaining fossil fuels are used to make plastics and other synthetics, and Petrochem has more fertile oilfields than any other company. All of these assets are huge, and accordingly hard to protect from other companies that would like to usurp Petrochem's wealth

History

2000s Trenton Parker strode across the desert. All around him stood monuments to his family's former glory. The giant oil pumps dotted the plain for miles around. Once they had all dipped their heads in cease-less, coordinated rhythm, pumping precious oil from the depths of the Earth; a field of enormous metal birds, bobbing in an endless orgy of feeding. Once Trenton had thought the feeding would never end. The machines would churn into eternity, drawing fossil fuels from some endless reservoir that would never run dry. He had been young and ignorant then, living off the fat of a family that had grown accustomed to an uninterrupted income of staggering proportions. One by one, over the years, the machines had ground to a halt. The oil had disappeared, and there was nothing left for the machines to bob for. The pipes to the refinery and the shipping ports in Calves ton had run dry. Oh, there was still oil produced in Texas, and some of it even came from the Parker family oil company, but it was a trickle. Now the oil was shipped by truck to the refineries, and it was used only for the manufacture of chemicals and synthetics. Those oil fields that weren't given over to cattle were home to Nomad tribes. Or completely desolate. It wasn't over for the Parker family, though. Not by a long shot. The family had owned plenty of land, much of which was arable. Foresight had lead Trenton's father, Louis, to raise the capital to make an investment that many others had scoffed at. Five years ago, when the oil was still flowing, Louis Parker had set up a licensing agreement with the infant Italian genetic engineering firm, Biotechnica. Parker Petrochemicals had become the only company in the United States permitted to commercially grow the genetically-altered wheat Triticum vulgaris megasuavis, a high-sugar grain which was fermented and catalyzed to produce the synthetic alcohol fuel, CHOOH2. Trenton stopped at a barbed wire fence and leaned against a post. He pushed the brim of his Stetson up and surveyed the land before him. As far as he could see, it was covered with rolling waves of golden wheat. Ripples spread across die fields as the winded died over the low hills. Off in the distance a phalanx of combine harvesters rolled in a staggered line almost a kilometer across. Five years of waiting had finally paid off. The family had been losing money ever since buying the license to grow the grain. For awhile, it had looked like a monumental mistake. Land was being wasted, money had been spent, and equipment was idle. Suddenly, however, things had reversed themselves. After five years of hemming and hawing, Ford and General Motors both announced that they would begin manufacturing automobiles equipped with CHOOH2-burning engines. Toyota, Honda and many other automotive giants had soon followed suit. Research was under way into producing jet turbines that could burn the heavy alcohol, and shipbuilding companies were experimenting with it. Soon CHOOH2 would be to the world what gasoline, kerosene and a score of other fuels had been. And no one in the U.S. was producing it except for Parker Petrochemicals. Well, really his and Ellen's. Ellen Trieste was the woman who had provided much of the capital for the purchase of the Biotechnica license. The family hadn't enough assets to swing the deal by itself at the time. Louis Parker had persuaded Ellen Trieste to sink tens of millions of dollars into the deal. The license might allow Parker Petrochemical to grow T. megasuavis, but it was Trieste who had the true power of life and death over the company. With a word she could pull the license and plunge the family into bankruptcy. Not that she was likely to do it. Trieste was set to reap a huge return on the investment, and she was also a prime shareholder in the company. 2010 The war in the South China Sea came to an end. Petrochem had lost, and SovOil became the sole drilling power in the region and the world's largest producer of crude oil and crude oil products, bar none. Petrochem was not even close any more. Fortunately, they still had the worlds largest CHOOH2 production facilities and a great empire of chemical and materials research and fabrication facilities. The war had put a crimp in the company's fortunes, but not seriously. A few years of slow growth followed, as Petrochem recouped its financial and manpower losses. The war had not helped to ease the tensions between Trenton Parker and Ellen Trieste. Ellen had firmly supported the war, while Trenton had argued against it. For a while it looked like Trenton would reverse his losses and seize control of the company, but Trieste rallied her supporters and headed off a coup at the last instant. The animosity between the two shareholders grew, but neither was able to unseat the other completely. Nor was either willing to risk direct action against the other. 2020 Petrochem was now a major world force. It remained on the cutting edge of chemistry and materials research and production, and it was now the world's largest agricultural corporation and greatest producer of CHOOH2. Within the corporation, however, tensions had continued to rise between Trenton Parker's camp and that of Ellen Trieste and Angus Youngblood to the point that they were becoming critical. Each side was preparing for a war that could tear the company apart from the inside out. Intrigue and betrayal were rampant. 2045 Although Petrochem were never directly involved in the Fourth Corporate War, the need to protect their valuable wells and fields, as well as fight off sporadic SovOil attacks as opportunities presented themselves, drew so heavily on the corporation that it entered the post-War period seriously depleted. With the collapse of most multinational fuel companies after War, Petrochem kept the world running. With such vast interests to protect, and due to the loses to Continental Brands, Petrochem had invested huge amounts of money in protecting itself, maintaining an armed force worthy of a small country. Still chafing under its CHOOH2 license from Biotechnica, it was only a matter of time before Petrochem's wily CEO found a way to absorb the smaller biotech company for good.