Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij

Properties2
tagsorganization, company, colonial, petroleum, oil, dutch, bpm, perlak, rantau-pandjang, pangkalan-brandan, pipe-line, perlak-petroleum-mij, peureula
aliasesBataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, Bataafsche Petr. Mij., BPM, Bataafsche, Batavian Oil Company, B.P.M., Bataafsche Petroleum-Mij, Batavian Petroleum Company, Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary, BPM Atjeh, Petroleum industry in Atjeh, Bataafsche Petroleum, Bataafsche Petroleum Mij Pangkalan Brandan

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Concessions in Atjeh

By 1917 five petroleum-concessions, totalling 8,652 H.A. and situated in the onderafdeelingen Idi and Langsa, had been brought into exploitation. Of these, two — Peudawa and Paja-Bilik — were no longer being worked; of the three still active, two (Oost-Peudawa and Peureula, the latter “eene concessie der Perlak-Petroleum-Mij”) were exploited by the Bataafsche, while the third (Zuid-Peureula) was exploited by the Petroleum-Mij. Zuid-Perlak. In 1914 the Bataafsche’s vergunningsterrein Kroëng Meureubo came into production for the first time, yielding 17 K.G.-ton of crude oil in that year. Exploratory vergunningen covered further tracts, including the oelèëbalangschap Meurasa near Oelèë Lheuë, Soengei Raja, and Bajeuën; the Koloniale Petroleum-Mij’s deep-boring at Bedoelang (Tamiang), abandoned in 1913 at 405 m, was the most ambitious of these unsuccessful probes.

The pipeline and the Pangkalan Brandan refinery

All the Atjeh crude was “afgeleverd aan en verwerkt door de raffinaderij der Bataafsche te Pangkalan Brandan” — the great refinery just across the border in Sumatra’s Oostkust — to which it was pumped through a pijpleiding consisting of a 5″ oil-line of 800-ton capacity per day and a 4″ gas-line of 100-ton maximum capacity. From the Atjehsche crude the refinery produced, in 1913, 66,253 K.G.-ton benzine, 92,895 K.G.-ton kerosine, 786 K.G.-ton Diesel oil, 16,850 K.G.-ton residu, and 8 K.G.-ton asphalt; the war years saw output fall to 44,144 K.G.-ton benzine and 65,079 K.G.-ton kerosine in 1915. The total Atjehsche crude production fell steadily from 182,447 K.G.-ton in 1913 to 148,493 in 1914 and 125,733 in 1915, a daling the handbook notes continued beyond 1913.

Installations at Pangkalan Soesoeh and the Aroebaai

At the haven of Pangkalan Soesoeh on the Aroebaai, the Bataafsche “reeds voor jaren … eigen steigers bouwde,” installations which bordered the haven-accommodatie shared by the Atjeh-tram and the Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij. The Bataafsche was also of financial importance to the Volkscredietwezen of the Oostkust: the Credietbank “Langsa” derived part of its working capital from the aandeel in de cijns for the petroleum-concessions that the landschapskas of Peureula — to which that cijns accrued — received in advance from the Maatschappij and then deposited with the bank.

Significance

De Buitenbezittingen notes that the oliepalm cultures of the European ondernemingen — particularly the met Belgisch kapitaal opgerichte oliepalmplantages in Tamiang — were, like the Bataafsche’s own concession-empire, dependent on the long-distance pipeline and the distant refinery for their economic meaning. The Company’s vast recht of ƒ0.25 per H.A. (yielding ƒ1,300 per year minimum) plus 4% of the bruto-opbrengst provided, in 1909, ƒ249,000; in 1910, ƒ255,000; in 1911, ƒ143,000; and in 1912, ƒ262,000 to the gewest, of which two-fifths went to the landschapskassen.

Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)

In author Joh. Langhout’s account, the Bataafsche’s consolidation marked the completion of the petroleum history of the East Coast: already in 1890, even south of the provincial border in the Langkat country, the Bataafsche had founded her establishment Pangkalan Brandan — an establishment at the deep-water Aroe-baai then being impossible for the absence of every authority, Dutch or native, the coast lying in complete anarchy and the young establishment repeatedly startled by attacks of roving bands. Governor Van Heutsz gave European mining his full interest, opening several tracts for private investigation and exploitation: especially in Peureula were great and rich petroleum wells struck, and in 1902–1903 also at Langsar, Peudada, Idi, Djoelo Rajeu and Tjoenda.

The pacifying enterprise

Langhout recounts the widely spread legend — “dat de militaire excursies vaak slechts moesten dienen om dekking te verleenen aan de nieuw gevestigde ondernemingen” (“that the military excursions often merely served to give cover to the newly established enterprises”) — and reverses it: in reality the petroleum exploitations were one of the foremost factors of the pacification of this part of the coast tract, for on the estates the Atjehnese for the first time knew the Hollander otherwise than as a soldier — he found an opportunity to work and an ample earning — while to the chiefs and great ones the enterprise opened a source of income in the cijns (tribute) greater than they had ever drawn from the heaviest taxing of their subjects. After a few raids by strange mountain bands in the first years, the good name of the enterprise became known even to the “kwaadwilligen” (“evilly-disposed”): it once happened that upon a foray all rice was carried off from the native and Chinese settlement, but the full rice-barns of the enterprise, past which the bands had crossed the river, were left unmolested. Hence the successive governors of Atjeh always favoured the petroleum enterprises, and — in deviation from custom — a geologist or other officer was occasionally allowed to accompany an excursion into the interior in search of oil-traces: “de vestiging van den olieman, zoo wisten de militairen, beteekent… de vrede!” (“the settlement of the oil-man, the soldiers knew, means… peace!”). Many of the later employees of the Atjeh Tram received their first schooling on the Perlak enterprise, to which the tact and language-knowledge of the then administrator Allein much contributed — within a short time he worked with 60% Atjehnese voluntary labour.

Rantau Pandjang and the pipeline

“In het binnenland is gaandeweg een oliestad, Rantau Pandjang, ontstaan” — in the interior the oil city Rantau Pandjang gradually arose: the oil was won there and, by a kilometres-long pipeline, pumped to Pangkalan Brandan, the industrial city of the Langkat terrains. Rantau Pandjang had a brilliantly equipped enterprise, surrounded by oil wells; beside a number of European workmen, a very great number of native and Chinese workers found an ample existence in the Bataafsche’s enterprise. Some years before 1923 the Zuid Perlak Maatschappij had transferred its works to the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, which already exploited other Perlak terrains. According to the official data, the Bataafsche pumped in December 1922 from the tract Peureula “121197 ton” (as printed; probably 121,197 ton) of crude oil, while in the same month 598 tons of crude oil were pumped from the oil field at Aloer Mas toward Rantau Pandjang — figures which over the last years showed a steady increase.

Account from Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf (1925)

Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij was oil company exploiting concessions near Peureula, operating pipeline 120 km from Rantau Pandjang to Pangkalan Brandan.

Operations in Peureula

Drilling terrains of Perlak Petroleum-Mij exploited by Bataafsche. Bataafsche processes oil not at place but pumps through pipeline 120 km to Pangkalan Brandan. Only gases at Rantau Pandjang compressed to oil likewise pumped away. Settlement with about 30 Europeans.

Earlier petroleum source discovered May 1875 officers Timor led by Atjeh heads, fenced source wooden collection tank, skimmed twice daily buckets pisang leaf, transported hollow bamboos back to Rantau Pandjang sale nearly 6 dollar per picol, head monthly income 200 dollars. Pebbles weathered granite quartz quartzite conglomerate siliceous sandstone per J. A. Kruyt.

Oil cijns made oeléëbalang rich; after 1912 petroleum accijns in landscape treasury and oeléëbalang fixed income.

Connection other companies

Terrenes of famous Zuid-Perlak Petroleum-Mij adjacent. Tol office receipts show cijns petroleum 1918 vs 1921 etc.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij — oil company. Long-exploited terrains at Rantau Pandjang (Peureula, formerly Pèrlak) and Rantau (Kwala Simpang). Explored at Leuboe (abandoned 1936). New sea-boring at Koeala Idi. Rantau is spectacular at night with gas flares.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 85, 88, 90.

Source

De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 27, 230, 242, 248–251.

The Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (B.P.M.) — the Batavian Petroleum Company, the production subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell group in the Netherlands East Indies — was, by 1917, the operator of every working oil-concession in the Afdeeling Oostkust van Atjeh and the owner of the great refinery at Pangkalan Brandan, to which the crude oil of Atjeh was conveyed through a pijpleiding of more than 120 km from the boorterreinen of Idi and Langsa. De Buitenbezittingen names the Bataafsche as the dominant industrial presence in the eastern part of the gewest: the third of the “drietal lichamen” that exercised “industrie groote schaal ten behoeve van de wereldmarkt” within Atjeh — alongside the Java-Bosch-Exploitatie-Mij of Sinabang and the Sabang Maatschappij of Poeloe Wé.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 85, 88, 90.

Concessions in Atjeh

By 1917 five petroleum-concessions, totalling 8,652 H.A. and situated in the onderafdeelingen Idi and Langsa, had been brought into exploitation. Of these, two — Peudawa and Paja-Bilik — were no longer being worked; of the three still active, two (Oost-Peudawa and Peureula, the latter “eene concessie der Perlak-Petroleum-Mij”) were exploited by the Bataafsche, while the third (Zuid-Peureula) was exploited by the Petroleum-Mij. Zuid-Perlak. In 1914 the Bataafsche’s vergunningsterrein Kroëng Meureubo came into production for the first time, yielding 17 K.G.-ton of crude oil in that year. Exploratory vergunningen covered further tracts, including the oelèëbalangschap Meurasa near Oelèë Lheuë, Soengei Raja, and Bajeuën; the Koloniale Petroleum-Mij’s deep-boring at Bedoelang (Tamiang), abandoned in 1913 at 405 m, was the most ambitious of these unsuccessful probes.

The pipeline and the Pangkalan Brandan refinery

All the Atjeh crude was “afgeleverd aan en verwerkt door de raffinaderij der Bataafsche te Pangkalan Brandan” — the great refinery just across the border in Sumatra’s Oostkust — to which it was pumped through a pijpleiding consisting of a 5″ oil-line of 800-ton capacity per day and a 4″ gas-line of 100-ton maximum capacity. From the Atjehsche crude the refinery produced, in 1913, 66,253 K.G.-ton benzine, 92,895 K.G.-ton kerosine, 786 K.G.-ton Diesel oil, 16,850 K.G.-ton residu, and 8 K.G.-ton asphalt; the war years saw output fall to 44,144 K.G.-ton benzine and 65,079 K.G.-ton kerosine in 1915. The total Atjehsche crude production fell steadily from 182,447 K.G.-ton in 1913 to 148,493 in 1914 and 125,733 in 1915, a daling the handbook notes continued beyond 1913.

Installations at Pangkalan Soesoeh and the Aroebaai

At the haven of Pangkalan Soesoeh on the Aroebaai, the Bataafsche “reeds voor jaren … eigen steigers bouwde,” installations which bordered the haven-accommodatie shared by the Atjeh-tram and the Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij. The Bataafsche was also of financial importance to the Volkscredietwezen of the Oostkust: the Credietbank “Langsa” derived part of its working capital from the aandeel in de cijns for the petroleum-concessions that the landschapskas of Peureula — to which that cijns accrued — received in advance from the Maatschappij and then deposited with the bank.

Significance

De Buitenbezittingen notes that the oliepalm cultures of the European ondernemingen — particularly the met Belgisch kapitaal opgerichte oliepalmplantages in Tamiang — were, like the Bataafsche’s own concession-empire, dependent on the long-distance pipeline and the distant refinery for their economic meaning. The Company’s vast recht of ƒ0.25 per H.A. (yielding ƒ1,300 per year minimum) plus 4% of the bruto-opbrengst provided, in 1909, ƒ249,000; in 1910, ƒ255,000; in 1911, ƒ143,000; and in 1912, ƒ262,000 to the gewest, of which two-fifths went to the landschapskassen.

Account from The Geology of Indonesia (1949) — B.P.M.

Founding and structure

The B.P.M. was created in 1907 as the operating subsidiary of the newly-amalgamated Royal Dutch Shell group. Van Bemmelen’s account of the founding reads:

“Of great importance was the amalgamation of the Royal Dutch and the Shell Oil Company in 1907. A new company was to develop the oil concessions in the Netherlands East Indies and to build and operate refineries for crude oil. This subsidiary company, the ‘Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij’ (Batavian Oil Company, B.P.M.), has since taken over all interests of the Royal Dutch in the Indian Archipelago.” The B.P.M.’s creation consolidated the Royal Dutch’s previously-scattered East Indian oil interests under a single operating company, and the B.P.M. accordingly became the principal vehicle through which the Royal Dutch Shell group conducted its East Indian oil business. The B.P.M.’s dominant position in the East Indian oil industry was further reinforced by the Netherlands Indies Mining Law of 1899, under which the colonial state (rather than the private landowner) held the mineral rights and could accordingly grant large consolidated concessions to a single operator — a legal framework that, as Van Bemmelen observed, “automatically avoided” the “splitting up… of an important oil concession into small lots” that characterised the Anglo-American mineral property regimes.

B.P.M. operations in North Sumatra

In the North Sumatra oil province — the petroleum-geological system that extended from the Aru Bay field on the East-Coast-of-Sumatra/Atjeh border northward into Atjeh proper — the B.P.M. operated:

  • The Aru Bay field (55,924 tons in 1940, 55,070 tons in 1941) — the second-largest producing field of the North Sumatra oil province.
  • The Telaga Said field (1,076 tons in 1940, 960 tons in 1941) — the oldest producing field in northern Sumatra, and the founding site of the northern-Sumatran oil industry (the 1885 Fennema-led drilling on the 1883 Zulkler concession).
  • The Bulu Telang field (919 tons in 1940, 900 tons in 1941).
  • The East Atjeh block (no production in 1940; 4,626 tons in 1941).
  • The Tamiang block (709,625 tons in 1940, 527,590 tons in 1941) — by a wide margin the largest producing field of the North Sumatra oil province.
  • The S. Aru Bay (block) (2,100 tons in 1940, 5,030 tons in 1941). The B.P.M.’s North-Sumatran production in 1940 accordingly totalled 769,644 tons (83.7 % of the North Sumatra total of 920,755 tons), and in 1941 593,176 tons (81.4 % of the North Sumatra total of 728,682 tons). The B.P.M.’s dominance of the North Sumatra oil province was thus overwhelming, and the company’s operations in the region — anchored by the Pangkalan Brandan refinery on the East-Coast-of-Sumatra side of the Atjeh border — were the principal industrial presence of the colonial oil economy in the Atjeh region.

The Pangkalan Brandan refinery

The B.P.M. operated the Pangkalan Brandan refinery — one of the five large refineries of the pre-war East Indian oil industry, and the only large refinery in North Sumatra. The other four large refineries were at Pladju (B.P.M., South Sumatra), Sungei Gerong (N.K.P.M., South Sumatra), Tjepu (B.P.M., East Java), and Balikpapan (B.P.M., East Borneo); there were also two small refineries at Wonokromo (B.P.M., East Java) and Kapuan (N.K.P.M., East Java). The Pangkalan Brandan refinery was destroyed during the political troubles after the war, and at the beginning of 1949 the refineries of Pladju, Sungei Gerong, Balikpapan and Wonokromo had been put back into operation.

Significance

The B.P.M. is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it was the operator of the great majority of the North-Sumatran oil fields — including the East Atjeh block and the Tamiang block on Atjeh territory, and the Aru Bay, Telaga Said and Bulu Telang fields immediately to the south — and accordingly the principal industrial presence of the colonial oil economy in the Atjeh region. The B.P.M.’s operations in North Sumatra, anchored by the Pangkalan Brandan refinery, were the principal economic link between colonial Atjeh and the world petroleum economy in the first half of the twentieth century, and the B.P.M.’s dominance of the East Indian oil industry (57.3 % of crude production in 1940) made it the most important single corporate actor in the colonial mineral economy of which Atjeh was a part.

Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)

The Bataafsche Petroleum-Mij — the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, the BPM — was the Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary which exploited the oil-terrains of the Perlak Petroleum-Mij at Rantau Pandjang in the landschap of Peureula (Perlak) in the onderafdeeling Langsa of the afdeeling Oostkust van Atjeh. The Bataafsche does not process the oil at Rantau Pandjang but pumps it through a 120 km pipe-line to Pangkalan Brandan on the Oostkust van Sumatra, where it is shipped. Only the gases are compressed at Rantau Pandjang into oil, which is likewise pumped away. There is a substantial settlement at Rantau Pandjang with about thirty Europeans.

The Petroleum of Perlak

The petroleum-spring at Rantau Pandjang was discovered by officers of the man-of-war Timor in May 1875, led thither by Atjehnese chiefs. The yield of the spring had once been 60 gantang; in 1875 it was 40 gantang — about one picol — which at Rantau Pandjang brought nearly six dollars. The chief had a monthly income from it of two hundred dollars. After 1912 the petroleum-cijns came into the landschapskas and the oeléebalang received a fixed income, which made the house of Teukoe Tjhi Perlak rich. The Bataafsche is the corporate successor of the earlier hand-gathering of the oil, and the 120 km pipe-line to Pangkalan Brandan is the principal piece of oil-infrastructure in the gewest. The Bataafsche Petroleum-Mij is the principal oil-company of the Atjehnese eastern coast, and its exploitation of the Perlak oil-terrains is the principal industrial enterprise of the onderafdeeling Langsa. The 120 km pipe-line to Pangkalan Brandan is the principal piece of oil-infrastructure in the gewest, and the petroleum-cijns is the principal source of revenue of the landschap of Peureula (Perlak) in the civilian period.

Source

Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapter V, ‘Perlak, land van peper en olie’, pp. 36–37.

See Also

Sources

The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), pp. 7–10 (petroleum history, refining, production tables). Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim; Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon (1932), for the Koloniaal Instituut and Handelsmuseum. Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 68, 83–85, 108, 160–163 (chapter “De Petroleum-ontginning”), illustration captions pp. 160, 162. Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf, by Dr. R. Broersma, Gebrs. Cohen, Utrecht, 1925, pp. 33-35, 14.

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