The Telaga Said drilling of 1885 is the founding episode of the northern-Sumatran oil industry — the drilling, under the leadership of the government mining engineer Fennema and on the 1883 concession of the private entrepreneur J. Zulkler, that “proved to be an outstanding success” and accordingly became the first productive oil well in northern Sumatra. The Telaga Said drilling is the originating technical episode of the entire northern-Sumatran oil industry, including its subsequent extension onto Atjeh territory with the East Atjeh, Tamiang and Atjeh oil complex fields.
The 1883 Zulkler concession
For the 1883 Zulkler concession, see the entry on J. Zulkler. In summary: in 1883 the private entrepreneur J. Zulkler obtained the first oil concession in North Sumatra; he encountered “considerable difficulties in drilling on account of an abundant flow of gas” and asked the Government Bureau of Mines for assistance.
The 1885 Fennema-led government crew
The government response to Zulkler’s request for assistance was to despatch a government crew, under the leadership of the mining engineer Fennema, with drilling equipment. Van Bemmelen’s account reads:
“A government crew, under the leadership of the mining engineer FENNEMA, was sent with drilling equipment and shortly afterwards, in 1885, this oil venture proved to be an outstanding success.”
The episode is the first documented instance of the public-private partnership model that would subsequently characterise the entire East Indian oil industry: the private concessionary (Zulkler) held the legal rights, but the government — through the Government Bureau of Mines and its mining engineer Fennema — supplied the technical expertise and the drilling equipment. The success of the Fennema-led drilling in 1885 established the model that would subsequently be repeated across the East Indian oil industry, in which the colonial state played a direct technical role in the development of the oil economy.
The 1890 founding of Royal Dutch
The success of the Telaga Said drilling attracted further private investment, and in 1890 the concession became the first oil property of the newly founded Koninklijke Maatschappij tot ontginning van Petroleum terreinen in Nederlandsch Indië — the future Royal Dutch. The 1890 founding of the Koninklijke Maatschappij accordingly represents the consolidation of the northern-Sumatran oil industry under a single corporate umbrella, and the beginning of the corporate sequence that would lead, via the 1907 amalgamation with Shell, to the creation of the B.P.M. as the dominant East Indian oil company.
The 1940–1941 Telaga Said production
By the 1940–1941 period, the Telaga Said field was a small mature producer operated by the B.P.M., with production of 1,076 tons of 1000 kg in 1940 and 960 tons in 1941. The decline from 1,076 tons to 960 tons (–10.8 %) is consistent with the gradual depletion of a small mature field. The Telaga Said field’s historical significance as the originating site of the northern-Sumatran oil industry made it more important than its modest late-colonial output would suggest.
Significance
The Telaga Said drilling of 1885 is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it is the founding episode of the northern-Sumatran oil industry — the industry that would, by 1940–1941, extend onto Atjeh territory with the East Atjeh, Tamiang and Atjeh oil complex fields. The drilling is also the first documented instance of the public-private partnership model that would subsequently characterise the entire East Indian oil industry, and the success of the Fennema-led drilling in 1885 established the model that would subsequently be repeated across the East Indian oil industry. The fact that the originating asset of the entire Royal Dutch (and subsequently Royal Dutch Shell) oil empire was the 1885 Telaga Said drilling on the 1883 Zulkler concession also makes the northern-Sumatran oil industry the founding locus of the company’s global presence.
See Also
- Acheh
- B.P.M.
- Bureau of Mines in Indonesia
- East Atjeh oil block
- J. Zulkler
- Netherlands Indies Geological Survey
- Oil exploration in North Sumatra
- Ph. C. Fennema
- Royal Dutch Shell
- Tamiang oil block
- Telaga Said
- Van Bemmelen’s The Geology of Indonesia (1949)
- 1883
- 1885
- 1890
- 1907
- 1940
- 1941
Source
The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), p. 7 (petroleum history, Zulkler concession and Fennema drilling).