Stoop — published in the volume as gouvernements mijnningenieur Stoop (governments’ mining engineer Stoop) — was the Dutch colonial mining engineer who, after resigning from the colonial government’s mining service, carried out the borings on Java that founded the Dordtsche Petroleum Maatschappij — the first indigenous Indonesian petroleum company. He is named in Ir. Van der Ploeg’s chapter Mijnbouw in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946).
Van der Ploeg’s account
Van der Ploeg’s wording: “Meanwhile the governments’ mining engineer Stoop had, after leaving the service, carried out borings on Java which were crowned with success. Stoop immediately began a small factory to distil and refine the crude oil. He sold in 1889 the first 8000 cases of lamp-oil locally in this densely populated region. As packaging served old cases and tins of American oil, which had been bought up second-hand by Chinese. With this the first Indies oil business, the later Dordtsche Petroleum Maatschappij, had come into being.”
Distinction from the Koninklijke
Stoop’s Dordtsche was, in Van der Ploeg’s account, the Javanese counterpart to the Sumatra East Coast–based Koninklijke Petroleum Maatschappij of Kessler and Deterding, whose 1884 concession in Langkat (immediately adjacent to Atjeh) had been the foundation of the modern Indonesian petroleum industry. The two companies — the Javanese Dordtsche and the Sumatran Koninklijke — were to remain in parallel existence until their eventual merger into the Royal Dutch Shell concern, with the Dordtsche being absorbed in 1911 as the last of the roughly fifty Indies petroleum companies to be brought into the concern.
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, Stoop’s significance is comparative: he was the founder of the Javanese branch of the late-colonial Indonesian petroleum industry, alongside Kessler (the founder of the Sumatra East Coast branch) and Menten (the founder of the Borneo branch). The three founders together — Stoop, Kessler and Menten — bracket the late-colonial petroleum industry of the Indies at its three principal points of origin, of which the Sumatra East Coast point (in Langkat, adjacent to Atjeh) was the most consequential for the strategic significance of the Atjeh region.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- Dordtsche Petroleum Maatschappij — Dordrecht Petroleum Company
- Koninklijke Petroleum Maatschappij — Royal Petroleum Company
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Langkat — Langkat
- Borneo — Borneo
- Java — Java
- Sumatra — Sumatra
- merica — pepper (Malay)
- gouvernements — government’s
- Dr. — Doctor
- Ir. — Engineer (Dutch Ingenieur)
Entry in the Maréchaussée register of honours (1930)
The Overzicht van Onderscheidingen printed in the 1930 jubilee number of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië records under 1903 the award to 1ste Luits. Mar. W. K. J. Stoop of the knight’s cross of the Militaire Willems-Orde 4th class, together with G. K. Dijkstra and C. F. A. Wagener.
See Also
- Dordtsche Petroleum Maatschappij
- Koninklijke Petroleum Maatschappij
- Royal Dutch Shell
- A. J. B. Kessler
- H. W. A. Deterding
- J. H. Menten
- F. P. C. S. van der Ploeg
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- 1889
- 1911
- Overzicht van Onderscheidingen toegekend aan het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (1890-1930)
- Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh (Jubileum-nummer 1930)
- Militaire Willemsorde
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), p. 252 (chapter Mijnbouw door Ir. F. P. C. S. van der Ploeg).
Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930 (“The Corps of Maréchaussée in Atjeh: The Atjehnese Guard”), Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.