The N.I.A.M. (Nederlandsch-Indische Aardolie Maatschappij, “Netherlands Indies Oil Company”) was a joint venture between the Netherlands East Indies Government and the B.P.M. (Royal Dutch) created to develop the oil concessions in the large productive Djambi basin of South-East Sumatra, and also active in smaller areas in North Sumatra (including Atjeh) and on the islet of Bunju, off the East coast of Borneo. The N.I.A.M. is the only state-venture oil company recorded in Van Bemmelen’s *Geology of Indonesia* (1949) as operating on Atjeh-relevant territory, and it accordingly represents the direct participation of the colonial state in the northern-Sumatran oil industry.
Founding and structure
Van Bemmelen’s account of the N.I.A.M.’s founding reads:
“In the large productive Djambi basin, SE-Sumatra, the Government of the Netherlands East Indies participated in a B.P.M. enterprise, called the ‘Nederlandsch-Indische Aardolie Maatschappij’ (Netherlands Indies Oil Company, N.I.A.M.). This concern is also active in smaller areas in North Sumatra and on the islet of Bunju, off the East coast of Borneo.”
The N.I.A.M. is accordingly a state-private joint venture: the colonial government participated in a B.P.M. enterprise, with the N.I.A.M. as the operating company. The Djambi basin was the principal focus of the N.I.A.M.’s activity, and the company’s operations in North Sumatra and on Bunju were “smaller areas” — secondary ventures alongside the main Djambi operation. The fact that the colonial government chose to participate in the Djambi basin specifically — rather than in any of the other East Indian oil provinces — reflects the strategic importance of the Djambi basin, which was the largest single oil province of the East Indies.
N.I.A.M. operations on Atjeh-relevant territory
Van Bemmelen’s reference to N.I.A.M. activity “in smaller areas in North Sumatra” is brief, and he does not specify which North-Sumatran concessions the N.I.A.M. operated. The N.I.A.M. is not, however, listed as the operator of any of the North-Sumatran fields in the 1940–1941 production table (Table 4), in which the East Atjeh, Tamiang, Aru Bay, Telaga Said and Bulu Telang fields are all operated by the B.P.M., and the Atjeh oil complex fields are operated by the N.L.A.M., N.K.P.M. and N.P.P.M.. The N.I.A.M.’s North-Sumatran activity is therefore either pre-1940 (i.e. the N.I.A.M. explored or held concessions in North Sumatra but did not produce oil there in 1940–1941), or in areas other than those listed in Table 4. The N.I.A.M.’s Bunju production (59 tons in 1940, listed under “Borneo Olie Mij. Kari Orang” in Table 4) is recorded, but its attribution to the N.I.A.M. rather than to the separate “Borneo Oil Company” is unclear from Van Bemmelen’s text.
Significance
The N.I.A.M. is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it is the only state-venture oil company recorded in the colonial geological literature as operating on Atjeh-relevant territory. The N.I.A.M.’s North-Sumatran activity — though not specified in detail by Van Bemmelen, and not represented in the 1940–1941 production table — is nonetheless the documentary evidence that the colonial state, through the N.I.A.M., participated directly (rather than merely as regulator) in the northern-Sumatran oil industry of which the Atjeh fields were the northern component. The N.I.A.M. accordingly represents the colonial state’s direct economic stake in the Atjeh-region petroleum economy, and its operations — however small — are part of the documentary record of Atjeh’s colonial oil industry.
See Also
- Acheh
- B.P.M.
- East Atjeh oil block
- N.K.P.M.
- N.L.A.M.
- N.N.G.P.M.
- N.P.P.M.
- Netherlands Indies Mining Law of 1899
- Oil exploration in North Sumatra
- Royal Dutch Shell
- Tamiang oil block
- Van Bemmelen’s The Geology of Indonesia (1949)
- 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. 8 (N.I.A.M. founding and structure).