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The Megacorporation that keeps the world running and one of the most influential Megacorporations in Night City in 2077.
Trenton Parker inherited the oil company of his family, Parker Petrochemicals, which extracted oil from several reservations around the world, Making the location in Texas the main one. At the turn of the century when oil started
to run low, due to overspending policies and lack of a plan B, this oil crisis affected his company to a point where its survival was called into question. At that time, in 2004, an up and coming Italian biotech company called Biotechnica, developed a genetically modified wheat. And thanks to a patented refining method, could be used as fuel.
Petrochem's bread and butter is CHOOH2, the synthetic alcohol that has become the world's standard combustible fuel; they are responsible for 60% of world supplies.
At the time Parker Petrochemicals had a lot of lands that could be used to grow crops they bought the exclusive license from Biotechnica, with the investment of Ellen Trieste, who then became the major power and chairwoman of the company, to manufacture and distribute the CHOOH2. The fuel that became the standard for ground vehicles. Although at first, it looked like a foolish investment, as soon as the popularity of the CHOOH2 grew, the capital of Parker Petrochemicals also grew, becoming Petrochem Industries, the energy giant. And petroleum derivate manufacturers, including plastic explosives, which people tend to forget. And many more shady things! Their specialties include: CHOOH2 technology, manufacture, and distribution, petrochemicals, crude oil distribution, oil, technology, general chemistry, chemical weapons, and advanced materials designed to replace plastic. A Bio Weapons division was to produce the biological and viral weapons developed by Biotechnica in full scale. And an extensive line of pharmaceuticals through their subsidiary Xoma.
Petrochem also produces some food when their lands are not suitable for the production of CHOOH2, or when the wheat produced is not up to energetic standards, they also used to produce food additives
but I'm not sure if they kept in business after facing criminal indictment following the discovery that 3 of its 5 most commonly employed krill additives were heavily carcinogenic.
With this newly acquired wealth, they also bought a large number of farms that were abandoned after climate change, also it's more than likely that some of these acquisitions weren't done in the most legal of ways, and they expropriated families of farmers that became Nomads to survive. As all megacorps that do big business in the dark future, one of the first things Petrochem decided to invest in as soon as it had the eddies was building their own security army to protect their assets against greedy megacorporations that may want them for themselves. And also for extractions, assassinations, and other black ops activities. This is the dark future.
The most famous battalion of this army is the Petrochem Water Leopards, one of the most terrifying black ops units in the corporate world, led by Captain Andrew Weyland, also known as Boa Boa. A solo who survived personal confrontations with Morgan Blackhand and Jenni Flex. They also own a large orbital research facility that is well protected, physically and electronically.
Petrochem was one of the megacorporations that supported the vision of Richard Night in building the perfect metropolis, along with EBM and Arasaka, expecting Coronado City,later renamed Night City, to be a cooperative playground. Richard Night had his eyes set in the Central California coast and Petrochem owned most of the land surrounding the moderately populated Del Coronado Bay region.
A land which property exchanged hands in a leveraged deal, and in 1993 became the land to build Night City on. In exchange for Petrochem's generosity, the city council awarded the megacorp with lucrative tax packages, drilling rights off the coast,a tower with a petroleum museum in the Corporate Plaza, and a beautiful building for its subsidiary Xoma. After the death of Richard Night, who pissed the mob off more than he should, corporations with economic interests in the city, headed by the Japanese megacorp Arasaka, eliminated most of the mob's leaders and decided they were the kinds of the hill.
After this corporate takeover megacorporations were the effective rules or Night City, and Petrochem was one of the main ones. They also did good things in Night City, they sponsored a Fine Arts Museum.
―called "the Second Vietnam", with its direct competitor SovOil, over newly discovered oil fields in the South China sea.
This was the most environmentally destructive corporate war ever, and although technically SovOil won the rights on commercial use over the zone, the truth is that everybody lost. During the 4th Corporate War Petrochem and its eternal rival SovOil stayed neutral as they provided the fuel for the war. Although CHOOH2 is the standard for ground vehicles, air vehicles depend on a special grade of the stuff or on petroleum products, and being Petrochem and SovOil the only remaining big petroleum derivate producers they are the door to know if you want your airstrike to deploy efficiency after traveling across the world with your AV. But these energy companies, although they produce a great amount of these fuels didn't keep much of a reserve stock and they prefer to slowly and carefully milk their oil fields for every drop. so Militech and Arasaka bought much of such reserves and put them into their reserves, but when the war started to go crazy and involve almost anybody that could hold a gun, which was called the "hot war". Petrochem and SovOil's production wasn't able to compensate for the demand for weeks, and prices skyrocketed. Which sadly never decreased to normal rates.
Even though Petrochem wasn't a target of Arasaka, Militech, or any of their allies, it was of its rival SovOil, who taking the war as a cover to sneakily do some dirty job attempted to stake claim of some of Petrochem's possessions by force, to be able to supply the demand during the 4th Corporate War with oil stamped with SovOil's signature, which caused the American energy giant to mobilize its troops, including calling the markers and debts for every gang the oil giant ever sponsored.
This sub war during the 4th Corporate War was called the "AvGas War". After the 4th Corporate War, the demand of CHOOH2 was still a thing, obviously, so no one expected Petrochem to fall, but during this confusion, the higher-ups at Petrochem didn't pay attention as their subsidiary, Continental Agricorp, took steps to divorce itself from the energy giant by paying the judge that ruled the cause because this is the dark future. Continental moved away forcing a spin-off of the subsidiary and buying half Petrochem's gas stations, called CHOOH-4U, which they rebranded as Oasis. This way the NeoCorp Continental Brands were born.
In 2077 Petrochem is still one of the most influential megacorporations in Night City, and it has its own beautiful tower in the Corporate Center of Night City, space that shares with Arasaka, Biotechnica, Militech, Orbital Air, and Kang Tao. And this is the story of Petrochem.
