N.K.P.M.

Properties2
tagsorganization, company, oil, american, colonial, standard-oil
aliasesNederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij, Netherlands Colonial Oil Company, NKPM, N.K.P.M.

4 min read

The N.K.P.M. (Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij, “Netherlands Colonial Oil Company”) was the subsidiary through which the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey entered the Netherlands East Indies oil industry in 1912, and which by 1940 “produced about one fourth of the total crude output in the territory”. For Atjeh specifically, the N.K.P.M. was the operator of the Pulu Pandjang field in the Atjeh oil complex — the only Atjeh-complex field operated by the company, and the only documented instance of N.K.P.M. operations on Atjeh territory. The N.K.P.M.’s parent company (Standard Oil of New Jersey) subsequently changed the subsidiary’s name to “Standard Vacuum Petroleum Company” after the Second World War.

Founding and structure

Van Bemmelen’s account of the N.K.P.M.’s founding reads:

“In 1912 the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey started operations in the Netherlands East Indies. Its subsidiary, the ‘Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij’ (Netherlands Colonial Oil Company, N.K.P.M.) was established and in 1940 produced about one fourth of the total crude output in the territory.”

The N.K.P.M.’s entry into the East Indian oil industry in 1912 marked the first significant American participation in what had previously been a Royal-Dutch-dominated industry. The N.K.P.M.’s subsequent growth to “about one fourth of the total crude output” by 1940 — i.e. roughly equal to the B.P.M.’s 57.3 % share divided among the three major non-B.P.M. companies — made the N.K.P.M. the second-largest oil company in the East Indies, after the B.P.M. itself. The post-war name change to “Standard Vacuum Petroleum Company” reflected the post-war reorganisation of the Standard Oil of New Jersey’s international subsidiaries, and the N.K.P.M. accordingly ceased to exist under that name in the post-colonial period.

N.K.P.M. operations on Atjeh territory

The N.K.P.M. is recorded in Van Bemmelen’s Table 4 as the operator of the Pulu Pandjang field in the Atjeh oil complex — the only Atjeh-complex field operated by the N.K.P.M., and the only documented instance of N.K.P.M. operations on Atjeh territory. The Pulu Pandjang field recorded no production in either 1940 or 1941, which suggests that the field was either in the development stage, suspended, or being explored but not yet brought into production at the date of Van Bemmelen’s tabulation.

The N.K.P.M. was, however, a major operator elsewhere in the East Indian oil industry. In South Sumatra the N.K.P.M. operated the large Pendopo block (857,073 tons in 1940, 894,920 tons in 1941) and the Benakat block (471,784 tons in 1940, 461,771 tons in 1941), as well as the Sungei Gerong refinery near Palembang — one of the five large refineries of the pre-war East Indian oil industry. The N.K.P.M.’s operations were accordingly concentrated in South Sumatra rather than in Atjeh, and the Pulu Pandjang field in the Atjeh oil complex represents a minor outlier in the N.K.P.M.’s overall East Indian portfolio.

Significance

The N.K.P.M. is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it was the operator of the Pulu Pandjang field in the Atjeh oil complex — the only Atjeh-complex field operated by the company, and the only documented instance of N.K.P.M. (i.e. Standard Oil of New Jersey) operations on Atjeh territory. The N.K.P.M.’s presence on Atjeh territory, however modest (the Pulu Pandjang field recorded no production in either 1940 or 1941), is the documentary evidence that the Atjeh oil complex was divided among three different oil companies — the N.L.A.M. (Peureula, South Perlak), the N.K.P.M. (Pulu Pandjang) and the N.P.P.M. (Pasé) — and accordingly that the Atjeh oil landscape was characterised by a fragmentation of concessionary interests that contrasted with the B.P.M.-dominated East-Atjeh and Tamiang blocks.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Has terrains at Pasè I, 25 km from Lho’Seumawé. Took over the former Hotel Nass as its logeergebouw.

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

Source

The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), p. 7 (N.K.P.M. founding), p. 9 (Table 4: Oil production in 1940 and 1941).

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.

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