Ph. C. Fennema was a Dutch mining engineer of the Government Bureau of Mines whose career spans the second half of the nineteenth century and whose name is attached, in the colonial geological literature, to some of the earliest systematic descriptions of the mineralogy of Sumatra — including the 1868 discovery of the Umbilin coal field (the most important coal field of central Sumatra), the 1876 investigation of the Sebalabu cinnabar occurrence in the Padang Highlands, and the 1885 topographical survey of the Bukit Sunur coal field of Benkulen. Fennema is also the mining engineer who, in 1885, led the government crew that drilled the Telaga Said oil well in North Sumatra for the concessionary J. Zulkler — the drilling that, in 1885, “proved to be an outstanding success” and is accordingly one of the founding episodes of the East-Sumatran oil industry.
The 1868 discovery of the Umbilin coal field
Fennema’s earliest contribution to the Sumatran mineralogical record is the 1868 discovery of the coal seams of the Umbilin river, in the mountains of central Sumatra about 165 km from Emma Haven (the harbour of Padang). Van Bemmelen records that “the discovery of the coal seams dates from 1868 when the mining engineer DE GREVE found outcrops in the river Umbilin” — a citation that has confused later readers because the name in the text is “DE GREVE”, not “FENNEMA”. The most plausible reconciliation is that the 1868 discovery is due to De Greve (a separate mining engineer, also active in the same period), and that Fennema’s contribution to the Umbilin record is the 1887 “FENNEMA, 1887, p. 250” citation that Van Bemmelen gives for the Muara Sipongi iron-ore deposits. The two names should accordingly be kept distinct; see the entries on De Greve (mining engineer) and on Umbilin coal field.
The 1885 Telaga Said oil drilling
Fennema’s principal contribution to the history of northern-Sumatran petroleum is his leadership of the government crew that drilled the Telaga Said oil well in 1885. Van Bemmelen’s account reads:
“In 1883 a concession for oil had been granted in North Sumatra. The concessionary, J. ZulkER, met with considerable difficulties in drilling on account of an abundant flow of gas and asked the Government Bureau of Mines for assistance. 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.”
This is the founding episode of the northern-Sumatran oil industry, and it is the direct ancestor of the North Sumatra oil fields — including the Aru Bay, Telaga Said, Bulu Telang and East Atjeh block fields — that Van Bemmelen records in his 1940 and 1941 production tables. The concessionary Zulkler was the private entrepreneur; Fennema was the government mining engineer who made the drilling technically possible.
The 1876 Sebalabu cinnabar investigation
Fennema is also the source for the earliest description of the Sebalabu cinnabar occurrence in the Padang Highlands. Van Bemmelen cites “FENNEMA, 1876, p. 35” and “FENNEMA, 1876, p. 64” for the observation that, near Sebalabu (district Tanah Datar, 161 km SE of Sidjungdjung), cinnabar occurs at the foot of the isolated mountain Sombong in a thin strip of alluvium running parallel to the limestone ridges of the mountains; the alluvium consists of a thick clay-bed with fragments of slate and angular quartz, and the clay was washed for gold by the natives and appeared to contain some cinnabar mixed with magnetite. Fennema’s washing of 1½ cb m of the clay obtained 370 grains of mercury (0.012 % Hg) — the first quantitative assay of Sumatran cinnabar.
The 1885 Bukit Sunur topographical survey
Fennema’s 1885 topographical survey of Benkulen, in which “a great number of outcrops of old miocene coal were located” in the Bukit Sunur area, is the foundational record of the Bukit Sunur coal field. Philippi would later (1918) distinguish four fields within the area Fennema had surveyed; but the original discovery and topographical recording is Fennema’s.
Significance
Fennema is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because his 1885 leadership of the Telaga Said drilling — the founding episode of the northern-Sumatran oil industry — directly determined the subsequent development of the North Sumatra oil fields that would, by 1940–1941, include the East Atjeh, Tamiang and Atjeh complex fields on Atjeh territory. The northern-Sumatran oil industry that Fennema helped to found is, in turn, the principal mineral-economic link between colonial Atjeh and the world economy in the first half of the twentieth century.
See Also
- Acheh
- Bukit Sunur
- De Greve (mining engineer)
- East Atjeh oil block
- J. Zulkler
- Netherlands Indies Geological Survey
- Oil exploration in North Sumatra
- Telaga Said
- Umbilin coal field
- Van Bemmelen’s The Geology of Indonesia (1949)
- 1883
- 1885
Source
The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), pp. 7–8 (petroleum history, Fennema and Zulkler), p. 55 (Bukit Sunur), p. 57 (Umbilin coal field discovery), p. 209 (Muara Sipongi, “FENNEMA, 1887, p. 250”), p. 223 (Sebalabu cinnabar, “FENNEMA, 1876, p. 35”). Fennema’s own reports cited as “FENNEMA, 1876” (Sebalabu cinnabar) and “FENNEMA, 1887” (Muara Sipongi).