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View all search resultsHistoric North Sumatra oil well proposed for national cultural heritage site
The historic Telaga Tunggal 1 oil well, Indonesia's first commercial oil well, started production in 1885 and operated until 2010 in Telaga Said village, Sei Lepan district, Langkat regency, North Sumatra.
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A visitor observes the historic Telaga Tunggal 1 oil well, in operation from 1885 to 2010, on Aug. 11 in Telaga Said village, Langkat regency, North Sumatra. Experts from the North Sumatra Cultural Heritage Team are preparing a proposal to designate Indonesia's first commercial oil well as national cultural heritage. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
C
ultural heritage experts have proposed a historic oil well in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, to be named as a national cultural heritage site as an important milestone in Indonesia’s road to being an oil exporting country.
Indonesia’s first commercial oil well, Telaga Tunggal 1, was the embryo of state oil-and-gas company PT Pertamina after the Indonesian government nationalized colonial Dutch oil company Batavian Petroleum Company (BPM) from 1958 to 1965 under the leadership of Ibnu Sutowo, an active military officer who was tasked to oversee the state oil company.
Medan State University vice rector Erond L Damanik, who is also a member of the North Sumatra Cultural Heritage Team, said the nationalization process was the beginning of the Indonesian oil company’s evolution into the present-day Pertamina. Since that time, Indonesia has been one of the world’s oil producers.
It all started when Aeilko Jans Zijker, a tobacco expert from Deli Tobacco Company (DTM), found inundated water mixed with a black liquid in Telaga Tunggal in 1880. Zijker took the black liquid sample to be tested at a laboratory in Amsterdam, which revealed it to be crude oil.
“Telaga Tunggal 1 oil well has historical and social significance. That is why the North Sumatra Cultural Heritage Team proposed it to be named a national cultural heritage,” he told The Jakarta Post on Aug. 21.
“Telaga Tunggal 1 was known since it produced oil from drilling in 1885. The drilling reached a depth of 121 meters and produced 180 barrels of oil per day [bopd].”
Crude oil from Telaga Tunggal 1 was exported to the Netherlands and other European countries, making Indonesia an oil exporting country, leading to its entry into the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1962.
