80th Anniversary of Oil & Gas Industry in Brunei

a nodding donkey S-15 in Seria, pic (c) Jennifer

Eighty years ago, 5th April 1929, the first well S-1 drilled in Padang Berawa or 'Wild Pigeon's Field' (Seria) began producing oil. The well S-1 was situated near the beach, at a depth of 300 metres, produced some 5,320 barrels of oil before it was finally abandoned in 1930.

Before the discovery of oil in Seria, according to G.C. Harper (1975), the first ever well drilled in Brunei was located at Ayer Bekunchi, Bandar Seri Begawan in 1899.

Extracting from the book, page 1:

EXPLORATION IN BRUNEI BEFORE SERIA

The first well to be drilled in Brunei with the specific purpose of producing oil was located at Ayer Bekunchi, at the site of an oil seepage near Bandar Seri Begawan. The hole reached a depth of 850 feet, but met with no success. The year was 1899, but long before this, oil prospectors had been travelling up and down North West Borneo investigating the numerous seepages in the area and even drilling in locations they considered promising. A shallow well had, for example, been drilled on Labuan Island as early as 1866.

The disappointment at the result of the well drilled in 1899 appears to have discouraged the early explorers, since no further oil exploration activities were carried out in Brunei until 1911, when a geological survey was made on behalf of the British Borneo Petroleum Syndicate Limited. This Company, which also explored the whole of the Sabah territory, subsequently acquired oil prospecting and mining rights over 169 square miles in the Belait District of Brunei between 1912 and 1916, and drilled four wells at Bukit Puan and on the Belait anticline near Labi. During this same period, a Singapore consortium, the Shanghai Langkat Company, obtained oil mining rights over a small area at Jerudong and drilled five exploration wells during 1913-1917. A Dutch Company, Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij, also drilled a well in the Belait District.

The Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company Limited, a Shell Group Company, acquired concession rights in 1913 and started its first geological survey over an area of 273 square miles in the Tutong District. Another Shell Company, Asiatic Petroleum Company (Federated Malay States) Limited. acquired concession rights in 1922, which it subsequently transferred to the British Malayan Petroleum Company Limited in February, 1924, although the latter Company had obtained conditional rights in July, 1923.

By 1923, Shell had completed eight exploratory wells in the vicinity of Tutong; all were dry holes. The other Companies mentioned earlier had fared little better. Their combined effforts had only produced an oilshow in the Petroleum Syndicate's second well; all other wells had been dry. As a result, both the Petroleum Syndicate and Shanghai Langkat abandoned active operatives. Shell, however, eager to extend its operations into Belait district, the area adjoining the Miri district in Sarawak where it had located and produced commercial oil since 1910, obtained the Petroleum Syndicate's acreage in exchange for an agreement wherein Shell undertook to pay the Syndicate a royalty of one shilling per tone of crude oil and a halfpenny per one thousand cubic feet of natural gas produced within Brunei. These royalties were paid until 1964, when all the Syndicate's rights were bought for $7,714. From 1923 onwards Shell embarked upon a vigorous exploration campaign, introducing modern survey methods in areas of low relief where conventional surface geology had yielded little results. Shallow corehole drilling and gravity surveys were started in this period. As a result, during the next seven years, 17 exploration wells were drilled, culminating in the discovery of the Seria field in 1929.

References:

G.C. Harper, 1975, The Discovery and Development of the Seria Oilfield, Penerbitan Khas bil. 10, Muzium Brunei.

programme book of Pameran Kemajuan Melalui Teknologi - 60 Tahun Minyak dan Gas di Brunei Darussalam, Aug 9, 1989, Brunei Shell Companies

Kesebilion Tong Padang Minyak Seria - The Billionth Barrel Seria Oilfield, 1991, Brunei Shell Group of Companies