History
'The Oil Town'
The successful discovery of offshore oil in the 1970s triggered a fresh development boom in Miri; luxury hotels were built, more houses constructed and new shopping centers and industrial estates established. Miri ranked as the second most important commercial town in Sarawak after Sibu town. The shift offshore began to show results in 1962 with the discovery of oil in two areas offshore Sarawak. Other finds followed in rapid succession well into the 1970s. When production levels reached 95,000 barrels a day, Petronas, the Malaysian National oil company, made Lutong the hub of oil production activities in Miri.
Another boom in the 1960s to 70s are the timber industry - exporting timber became a highly lucrative industry.
Tourism thrives; Miri came to be known as "Sarawak's Northern Gateway". In the mid-nineties, development plans for rapid changes and concentration on tourism to boost the commercial sector calls for the Oil Town to be elevated to a City status - the first city in Malaysia to do so.
next: a Resort City Status
Coming of Age
On August 1st, 1960, the Miri General Hospital, which had for long been operated by the oil company with financial assistance from the government, was handed over to the government; with it went the Miri Ferry that connects between the peninsular and town - and the hospital -, all the concession land on the Miri Peninsula south of the Miri Golf Course, and all the houses, roads and utility services within that area. Plans were also being made to hand over important sections of the company's oil field roads. Later in the year, the prototype of the Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) built in Holland arrived for experimental use in waters off Lutong.
For those who were mystified, the Managing Director's speech at the official opening of the oil company's head office on 22nd December may have provided a few clues to the company's rationale. Recalling the old pioneering days in Miri, he said, "Did they (the pioneers) realize what the discovery meant in terms of development, administration, politics, economics? In the event they came and came fairly swiftly. Industrial development was something new in Sarawak. The oil company of those days had perforce to set up, man and operate a world of its own; it was almost a state within a state. But not even in those, now rather remote days, did the company want to be in that position."
It was by such gently worded implications that the Managing Director, Mr. Linton sought to re-define what he called "the part of a modern industrialist in a developing state such as Sarawak", but the message was clear: after fifty years of direct involvement in the growth of Miri from a tiny fishing village into an oil town (creating Lutong in the process), the company was concerned to remind both public and employees alike that its rightful place was alongside all the other industrialists in the country. It was, of course, an inevitable process and would probably have developed faster if it had not been for the war and its aftermath rebuilding. As things were, it was only in the previous year that the oil company vehicles were re-registered, from C for company to M for Miri, thus obviating an old institution arising out of an agreement between the oil company and the government regarding the use and maintenance of some roads built by the company in Miri. And - strange to think how recent it was - the company had only in that year, 1960, come to an agreement with the government that its buildings in Miri should be liable to rates, thus enabling employees and others living in those houses to vote in District Council elections. The more perspicacious may have seen the signs as early as 1957 when the policy began of releasing areas of its land reserve no longer required for operations, but now the writing was clearly on the wall for all to see. As one wag put it, the oil company from now on was going to mind its own business. And that business, as the exploration efforts of the preceding year had shown, was going to take place more and more at sea. Proof of this was the arrival of the Orient Explorer, the first mobile drilling rig to enter Sarawak waters.
If 1960s was a turning point in the history of the oil company, then it must have seemed to many to be a distinct downturn. The following year a new panel room was installed at the Lutong Refinery but its beautifully modern meters recorded no increase of Miri crude. On land, wells continued to be either rehabilitated or abandoned, which was not so easy an operation as it sounds for some of the old wells, especially those on Miri hills, were difficult to get at. Cement, water, cutting equipment, everything had to be practically man-handled up and down the rather steep slopes and no doubt an engineer or worker paused in mid-push to take off his hat, not just to wipe sweat off his brow but more in tribute to those who had first drilled the wells and got them going in the days of few facilities and much jungle.
At sea, the Orient Explorer explored - off Baram Point in the north and off Bintulu in the south - and found no oil. The only activity that showed any sign of promise were the experiments with the SBM, and even here initial problems had to be ironed out and modifications made before this revolutionary idea in berthing and loading tankers could be put to full practical use at Lutong.
It was not until September 1962, that the first bit of good news was received from the Orient Explorer: Temana was found to be not merely the favorite hunting ground of sharks (one driller claimed he sighted as many as 150 of this piscean species in one day.), but actually concealed some precious hydrocarbons in its dark and secret depths. But after two and a half decades of disappointment, no one was prepared to make promises only the usual cautious remarks about more wells drilled in the area proved less than hopeful, and soon the excitement of later events chased Temana out of most people's minds.
Ten years later, on 1st October 1972, the inevitable happened. The Miri Field was closed in. Production of the Miri field had never, of course, returned to pre-war levels. It had been obvious from the sharp drop in the figures between 1929 and 1935, from the five and a half to two million barrels, that the reservoirs were running down. In the post-war years only once, in 1964, did production pass the 500,000 marl. At the beginning of 1972, only 90 wells of the 623 drilled during the history of the field were still pumping. Production had fallen to 450 barrels per day, and was dropping rapidly. After 62 years of production, the oil reserves in Miri field were exhausted and Sarawak Shell had no alternative but to close it in. In the last month of operation, one of the wells still creaking slowly up and down was the same well that began the saga of Miri Well No.1. At the close, 'The Grand Old Lady' was still managing to produce 3 barrels of oil a day when finally stopped.
Royal Occasions
The other momentous event in 1957 was the decision made by the oil company to relinquish some 75% of the land concession in the hinterland of Sarawak after explorationary surveys had shown no indications of oil. These 36,650 square miles were in fact not due for relinquishment untill 1968. In Miri-Lutong the company had also released five sites from the Land Reserve - one for the open market, one for the slaughter-house on the Miri riverfront north of the town, one for a stone-crushing and storage plant south of Kuala Miri on the coast near the Chinese Middle School area, one for a municipal labor line on the east of Miri and one for a Roman Catholic church near pangkalan wharf, east of the Lutong housing area.
1958 saw the opening of the Miri Community Hall, towards which the company had contributed more than half of the cost. Soon after the opening a party from the Malayan Teacher's College in Penang paid a visit to Miri. The local Education Officer naturally took them on a tour of the new Hall, the pride of Miri. On reaching the storeroom he explained that the four lockers there were to be used for storing equipment belonging to various local organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Guide, etc. To demonstrate, he pulled open the Boy's Scout lockers to reveal - beer bottles. Staggered but undaunted he tried the Red Cross locker and lo and behold! before him stood a row of unopened whisky bottles. It is reasonable to assume that he did not care to try the fourth. Subsequent investigation revealed that these lockers were temporarily being used by an organization that had nothing to do with those for which the lockers were intended, so community leaders in Miri could breath again.
In 1959 the quiet placidity of Miri was rocked by two royal visit. The first one was by Prince Philip and as Miri had not been so honored since the Rajah came before the War, the post was kept busy with frantic letters between the Government and company officials regarding program and protocol. And then, just to make sure nothing went wrong, a rehearsal drive through town and reception at the Community Hall was held, with a member of Senior Staff (still today addicted to Miri Amateur Dramatics) acting as Prince for the day. So well did he assume his princely role as he graciously acknowledge the cheers, salutes and salutations from the crowd that he must heave earned more than a few muttered curses from his colleagues and friends who had had to remain their ordinary commoner selves, albeit furbished in lounge suits for the men and long white gloves specially flown out for the ladies. He recalls how at the dress rehearsal "Official Reception", company officials and their wives lined up to shake his hand and answer his courtly queries after their health and life in Miri, walked past him with dignity and then rushed back to the end of the queue to do it again - like film extras used to swell. The real visit itself ended with a cultural show on the GCM Padang (field), fireworks on Canada Hill and an impromptu party at the GCM when the dinner jacketed gents and their white gloved ladies having a quiet drink at the bar were descended upon by Temenggong Gau and his men in full Kenyah warrior regalia, armed with several jars of vintage borak.
The other royal visitor was the first Yang Di-Pertuan Agung of Malaya, who came to Miri on a one-day visit, the tail end of his tour of Sarawak. Most of the celebration took place in Miri and much to the disappointment of company employees, he did not tour the refinery.
Rehabilitation
On June 10, 1945, troops of the Australian 9th Division occupied Labuan Island. Within 11 days, they had landed on the mainland and liberated Miri and Seria. They were met by a scene of devastation-blazing wells, demolished buildings and wrecked installations. Amidst all this stood Kiat Siang's humble little petrol kiosk on River Road, almost totally intact. (It has since been lifted by a Company crane to the Malay School compound by the Miri Mosque and now serves as the school tuckshop). The main task then was to resume oil production.
Although hostilities ceased on the 2nd September, some of the Japanese forces, a few miles behind Miri, did not capitulate until much later. Nevertheless, work had to go, bringing the burning wells under control and clearing away the debris. Progress was handicapped by lack of equipment and material, especially of transport units and such items as welding sets.
The rehabilitation of the Miri and Seria fields was carried out with assistance of the Australian Army engineers. To blanket the flames, steam was rasied in some handy Japanese boilers, and played on the wells. In many cases, the Japanese had dug pits around the well-heads and these had filled with flaring oil, making it difficult to approach. Naturally many men were needed for the fire-fighting operations. Those Company workers who had remained behind during the war were obvious candidates for the job. After a hectic five years of doing office or oilfield work during the day, planting padi in the evenings, and attending daily physical training and Japanese language sessions, they were no doubt more than a little relieved to find out that now they no longer had to work more than six hours a day. They were paid 30 cents a day and spared the obligation to keep themselves physically and linguistically fit. Many Mirians had fled to the jungle - "pergi masuk hutan"; they were encouraged to come out by means of friendly aircraft dropping leaflets with news of the liberation.
By September 1945 all the fires were out. Attention now turned to clearing up the general mess, repairing the storage tanks, the main trunkline between Seria and Lutong and the sea-loading facilities. The only equipment available was borrowed from the army. However, by Novemeber that year the Army were able to evacuate the oilfield areas. The first storage tank in Lutong was satisfactorily repaired and tested, and on Decemeber 11, oil began to flow again in the Seria-Lutong pipeline.
It was not until October 1946 that any appreciable output was achieved. At the end of the month, nearly 6,000 barrels were produced. By the end of the year, the rehabilitation staff were looking back with satisfaction on twelve months of very substantial progress, inspite of the stark living conditions they had had to endure. Food was scarce and cigerettes, tabacco and drinks were supplied through army-ration basis. Tinned food was received in reasonable quantities from Austrialia, but was, for some time, a serious shortage of dairy produce. The health situation was never good, the incidence of malaria being quite high.
Not only was the field staff having to work with makeshift equipment, they also relied heavily on supplies of essential materials. Thus when a scheduled shipment of cement for drilling work failed to arrive in August 1946, the first serious setback in field operations occured and the regular programme had to be temporarily suspended.
By the end of August, 1946, the immediate programme of post-war reconstruction may be said to have been completed. The month previously, the first well drilled at Miri since the Japanese withdrawal, was completed at 3,346 feet with a regular production of 420 barrels per day. Having set the field back on its feet, it was now possible to allocate a little time to other work that had been given low priority during the rehabilitation period. The rebuilding of the Lutong refinery and the testing and replacement of sea-lines had of course, been going on concurrently with the resuscitation of the oil wells. Now, roads were repaired, accommodation for staff extended and workshops and repair shops re-equipped. Many difficulties had still to be contended with. There remained a shortage of labor which at times caused serious problems and the food situation, although greatly improved over the previous years, still left much to be desired. There were transportation worries, and deliveries were still far from regular.
However one major change to pre war days was the move from Miri to Seria of Shell's exploration and production headquarters from North West Borneo arising from the realization that Seria Field was a million barrel oilfield and the only one in North West Borneo, that the Miri Field was declining and that in spite of extensive and costly exploration, no new oilfields had been found in Sarawak. The refinery remained in Lutong as a facility for both Miri and Seria.
Decline and War
In the 1920s, these were the years when the Miri field began to decline. Exploration was carried out further and further afield. In 1926 an exploratory team had gone as far as Padang Barawa between the Sungai Seria and Sungai Barawa. Not much attention was paid to their findings then, but now with the Miri field declining the old maps and charts were taken out and studied again. The result was the discovery of Seria field in 1929. In the years that followed people, equipment and installations began to be moved from Miri to Seria although the field was not really developed till postwar. The refinery remained in Lutong, but Miri contributed less to it. By 1940 the field had produced just over one million barrels during the year. By then, however, the operators were less concerned with producing oil than with shutting the field in, in case of enemy invasion.
War found two opposing forces who tried to influence the flow of Miri oil. On one side were the Allies (and the Company), determined to keep the oil in the ground. On the other side were the Japanese, equally determined to get the oil out.
Soon after news of Pearl Harbor, the first Japanese planes were seen making reconnaissance flights over Miri and Lutong. Immediately Company officials, with the help of the tiny garrison sationed in Miri, put Operation Denial into force. All producing wells were sealed up, vital equipment and machinery were dismantled and shipped off to Singapore. Skilled workers and important Company papers went along. The Company was determined to deny the invaders of all possible means of producing oil. So busy were they with the Denail Scheme that the Company officials themselves had barely time to leave on the three ships which were to take them to Kuching. They were attacked on their voyage. The G.M. Mr. B.B. Perry who stayed behind was last seen escaping up the Baram, never to be heard of again.
On 16th December 1941, a mere nine days after the Pearl Harbour, a Japanese invasion force of about ten thousand men landed at Tanjong Lobang. And a few months later, not long after the Fall of Singapore, there landed at Miri a large number of skilled, experienced oilfield workers, accompanied by a great deal of oilfield equipment and machinery - the very same that had been so carefully sent off to Singapore just before the invasion. The Japanese had managed to find out where exactly in Singapore both men and machinery were hidden, and had promptly brought them back. So much for the Company's denial scheme.
Ex-Company workers now found themselves working for the Nen Ryo Hai Kyu Sho or the oil Supplying Service. As one of them says, it was much like working for Shell (or Sarawak Oilfields Limited, as it was known then). Living conditions were naturally slightly different, and food, medical facilities and rest were short, but oil there was plenty of. It is said, much of the equipment used by the Japanese was portable. Not just derricks, but production and supply tanks, and even the refinery are reported to have been portable, or at least more mobile than they tend to be. It was by this remarkable combination of Japanese ingenuity and local labor that nearly three quarters of a million barrels were produced during the three and a half year's occupation. Production reached its peak in 1944.
By that time, living conditions had seriously deteriorated. Towards the latter half of the Occupation, Miri and Lutong became the target of innumerable air raids - systematic bombing, part of the Denial Scheme. Food, clothes and medicine were scarce; sickness and malnutrition rife. Those who worked for the Oil Supplying Service were marginally better off. They got regular rations of food, even though rice was being substituted by sweet potatoes and 'ubi kayu' with alarming frequency. But even they were not free from tribulation. It was not at all unusual, after a hard day's work on the oilfield and at the refinery, to be made to work on the construction of the Lutong Bridge and the Lutong Airstrip.
But if construction was strenous, maintenance was even more so, especially where the airstrip is concerned. In the dead of nigh one would be woken up by Japanese soldiers for the purpose of carrying heavy baskets of sand from the nearby beach to fill up the holes in the strip caused by Allied bombs. And more often than not, one would find one the following evening that Allied planes had paid yet another visit during the day, leaving the airstrip once again as pitted and potholed as the surface of the moon. Indeed, as the war went on, this filling up of holes became almost a nightly ritual.
Miri Oil Well No.1 lived through it all - she must have felt strange tremors of the earth under her feet as bombs were scattered, setting all they touched aflame. There was the night for instance when the shipyard and the nearby tanks were bombed and the fire spread through the town defying the rain that was coming down in torrents. The Old Lady of Miri serenely waited for someone to come along and set her going again. It was the Australians who came first.
A Little Excitement
And so things slowly improved. By 1921 or thereabouts, there were about 40 shophouses in Miri. An English school had been set up near the GCM - the gate pillars of which are still standing - and in the town itself there was a Chinese School with an attendance of 40. Bicycles and motorcycles started to appear on the few clay roads in town. Not long after, motor cars were introduced. This phenomenon brought further changes to the area.
In 1924, the Pujut road was built linking Miri to Lutong. The route was marked out in what was for then a novel procedure. Instead of sending a team of surveyors to hack their way through the dense and dangerous jungle, a sea-plane was flown from Miri to Lutong, spraying white lime as it went, thus marking out the route of the new road.
Construction workers then followed the way of the lime, armed only with axes and 'changkuls' to chop, dig or ward off snakes and other unfriendly animals as and when the need arose.
Working on the oilfields with the old cable tool method was equally slow and no less hazardous. Very often, the discovery of oil was heralded not by the gusher of movie fame but by a column of fire flaring out of the hole in the ground. Since there was no fire brigade, the sound of the siren was a summons to all and sundry to come and help put out the flames. But by and large, it was a booming time. The population continued to increase, or at least the male population did, since few men who came out brought their wives with them - life in Sarawak was too uncertain. It is not surprising therefore that Miri in those early days had very much the character of a wild west town. In 1923 (some say it was earlier) there was a riot reputed to have been sparked off by a woman. No records remain, even in memory, of this local Helen anak Troy. But the riot is well-remembered.
It would seem that a group of men started fighting outside the police station. Stones and other trajectories somehow found their way through the canvas windows of the police station, itself a frail enough building. The Miri police chief, popularly known as 'Captain Bobby', came out to pacify the crowd and tried to persuade them to go home in an amicable fashion. A stone on the left cheek was all the thanks he got for his noble efforts. The police opened fire.
Another, and to my mind duller, version of the story has it that the riot started merely as a result of a brawl. All the same, the police and the Sarawak Rangers were called in to control the crowds. 13 rioters were killed and 24 wounded before order could be restored.
As the years went by, life in Miri became more supportable. Rotary drilling was introduced in 1925, and by the follwoing year most of the oil accumulations in the Miri field had been discovered. Production continued to increase, reaching a peak in 1929 at 15,211 barrels per day. Water supply was improved, more of the jungle cleared, swamps drained and roads built. With the expansion of the field, more and more people were needed to fill jobs at clerical and supervisory level. Most of these were recruited from India, Ceylon, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Penang, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Many of them later married local girls and made Miri their home.
Early Days
To picture Miri when the township came to know oil, we have to project ourselves into a very different past. When the original Shell men arrived, it consisted of 20 scattered houses and a few shops. These included a bazaar, a gambling farm, a pawn shop and an Arab shop. The trade of Miri consisted chiefly of jelutong, brassware, belachan and budu.
There were two Chinese provision dealers (one of whom, Towkay Kiah Huat, was the father of a future Kapitan China.) Their chief stock in trade was corned beef, tinned milk and much to the solace of those early expatriates, Key beer. Eggs were sold for 1/2 or 1 cent, bananas fetched 1 cent each, whilst the price of a chicken could leap from 15 cents to 25 cents, unless you were prepared to bargain with the 'punjut'. The only fresh meat was wild boar, buffalo, venison and pigeons.
There was no market, only a little hut where crowds waited daily for the arrival of the fishing boats. It was a cut-throat affair. As soon as the Customs Officer had weighed the fish, he had scarcely any time to put them down before the crowd rushed in to snatch anything they could lay their hands on, from a small shark to a good ikan bawal. In the ensuing scrimmage, hands often bled and fights broke out.
Communications were bad. For shipping, going over the bar with a good sea running was a dangerous and no assistance would have been forthcoming had an accident occurred. A life line was run the whole length of the 'perahu' (a small boat) in case it capsized. The rougher the sea, the quicker the transfer had to be made from ship to shore, the captain being always anxious to get under way as soon as possible.
If the whole maneuver appeared dangerous by day, it became infinitely more dangerious by night. Should the steamer appear after dark, that was the misfortune of the Miri dwelers. If they failed to disembark passengers, goods, and mail immediately, they might awake at dawn to see the vessel once again steaming away round Baram Point.
More often than not, the captain took the decision to bypass Miri. Homesick expatriates standing on the wharf eagerly awaiting their mail from home stood helplessly by as they watched it sail out of their reach.
Between September and March, Miri tended to be cut off. Supplies had to be stored - without the benefit of such modern luxuries as an ice plant. One of the major worries in setting up an oil camp was that during the monsoon season it might be impossible to obtain rice and other provisions for the increased population.
There was of course no telegraph system. For urgent messages, a special runner came from Labuan, via Brunei, taking four days and nights by the sea beach. There were no roads, only dirt tracks - and no street lamps. Everyone was warned to carry a hurricane lamp at night, under penalty of arrest. There were not even rickshaws, and when one of the Europeans rode on a bicycle, the whole kampong turned out in amazement to watch him.
Miri settlement had been wrested from the jungle - and was only held on sufferance from it. Wild pigs used to run around, even under the bungalows, looking for tit bits. Leopards were not unknown. The place was cockroach infested - they got into your clothes, they ate the gum of your envelopes. You were obliged to share your bathroom with out-sized centipedes and spiders. Rats swarmed at nights. And the favorite sport of the monkeys was to hurl coconuts at cook boys and crockery alike.
Dysentry and malaria were common hazards. The only doctor was on Labuan Island. A visit to the surgery meant a 120 mile journey along the coast, or a chance call by one of the paddle steamers. It could mean a wait of 10 days for professional medical attention. A small First Aid kit was kept in camp with medicine for coughs, cholera and colds. The great stand by was castor oil - administered alike to the wants of the labor force be it 'susah hati' (heart burn), 'sakit perut' (stomach ache) or 'sakit kaki' (leg pain).
Later, the first general hospital was built on the site of the present Number 2 slipway. If the Medical Officer got ill himself, it was not uncommon for the General Manager to roll up his sleeves and assist the dresser in charge to treat the ailments of the workers.
Operationally, those first Shell men setting an oil camp in a remote location, were presented with innumerable problems of a kind we have long since forgotten. All the necessary drilling equipment and supplies, for instance, had to be manhandled to the site. Heavy machinery had to be unloaded at sea, from ocean steamers into small boats capable of negotiating the treacherous bar at the mouth of the Miri River. There was no Government launch to assist the landing. Equipment and men travelled in 'perahus' or open 50-ton wooden tongkangs propelled by 8-12 long poles. If the steamer arrived at night, they had to arouse the kampong (village) in order to man these.
They quickly discovered that the 'Singkeys' or Chinese coolies tended to get sea sick at the slightest swell. Their unloading methods were crude and it was no unusual for the oil technologists to lend hand as stevedores.
It is all the more remarkable, therefore, that despite the initial shortage of labor, the absence of wharf, and without benefit even of a crane, items weighing up to 5 tons were got ashore. The largest single unit was a boiler. To land it, they resorted to the stratagem of turning the 50-ton wooden boat on its side and rolling the boiler out on poles.
And so the Miri field got under way. By the end of 1911, production had reached 260 tons.
Earth Oil - the discovery
The story begins with a Mr. C.C. (Claude Champion) de Crespigny, then the Resident of Baram, who was the first to record the presence of oil in Sarawak. The entry in his diary, dated 31st July 1882, refers to oil discovered in some 18 wells dug by hand by the local inhabitants.
'Earth Oil' was their name for it. Ever since this strange substance appeared in seepages, its possibilities had begun to be realised. They used the oil mixed with resin for chaulking boats. They also tried to use it for lighting, employing an open wick, but it invariably caught fire, usually with disastrous results to their homes. 'Earth Oil' soon earned a reputation of being possessed by a 'hantu' (ghost/spirit) with an inconvenient and insatiable desire to burn down houses.
But now officialdom had recognised its existance. De Crespigny recommended, in his report to the Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Brooke, that an investigation be made. The Rajah presumably never gave this a second thought, since nothing was done. After all, the year was 1882 and the demand for petroleum in Sarawak was nil.
The persistent de Crespigny, however, obviously saw more of a future oil than the Rajah did. In 1884, we find him again suggesting that the whole area be "thoroughly searched and reported on."
The man who was to take him seriously and who was to do just this was de Crespigny's successor, a Dr. Charles Hose, who became the Resident in 1888. Sarawak's oil industry owes much to him.
Charles Hose was born in October 1863. He was at Jesus College, Cambridge, when his uncle, the Bishop of Singapore, obtained for him a cadetship in the Sarawak civil service; his first post was at Claudetown, (now Marudi) a small settlement then some two day's journey up the Baram River. His predecessor's notes prompted him to explore and map the seepages in the Baram District. His journeys were numerous during which, part from building up an invaluable collection of data on Sarawak's natural history, he discovered a number of oil shows. These he reported to the Government, who duly secured the services of an English geologist. The latter registered a very adverse opinion of the oil prospects, no doubt assessing any value that the oil had, against the engineering and transportation problems which, at that time, must have appeared insurmountable.
Hose was certain however that, with proper management and skill, the oil could be worked commercially. Whatever time allowed, he visited the area and made a map of the district, carefully marking in all seepages. He encouraged the local inhabitants to help him search offering small rewards for any seepages they discovered.
In 1907, Hose returned to England on pension. The Rajah was living in Cirencester at the time and Hose wrote to him asking permission to show his map of the oil seepages and samples of the oil to "an oil company." After some correspondence, the Rajah invited him to discuss the matter with him. Hose's task was no easy one. Sir Charles was then approaching 80 years of age, and was strongly opposed to anything "new-fangled". He even refused to have electric light installed in his Istana. But he gave way.
Hose travelled immediately to London. The "Oil Company" he had in mind happened to be Anglo-Saxon Petroleum, one of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies. He sa Mr. H.N. Benjamin. Benjamin and his collegues showed interest in Hose's map and in the samples which they analysed. Following negotiations, the Rajah was informed and agreed to come to London to sign the concession and lease.
Hose was invited to return to Sarawak with Dr. Erb, the petroleum company' petroleum expert. They returned by way of the Trans-Siberian railway. On arriving at Kuching, they called on the Rajah, then back in residence, before proceeding to Miri. Dr. Erb seems to have been impressed but cautious regarding prospects of oil. He carried out a general geological survey of a large part of the northern Sarawak and reported back in person to the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company confirming the existence at Miri of a dome-shaped, unsymmetrical anticline with a steep eastern flank and numerous oil shows.
Predatory Tigers
In due course, Dr. Erb located the first exploratory well on top of a hill. This completely mystified the local population who had expected the drilling to take place in the swamps where the seepages were occuring. It also caused them no little consternation. Local legend had it that a cave ran from Tanjong Lobang to Pujut, inhabited in the former days by two ferocious tigers so predatory that, from time to time, a young girl had to be thrown to them to appease their wrath. The Miri populace now feared that the well would penetrate the cave and resuscitate the tigers. Their representatives met on site with Dr. Erb who was well able to demonstrate - with measurements - that the well would just miss the cave.
It was thus that on August 10, 1910, a group of curious local inhabitants gathered on top of the hill overlooking the town and watched with interest as a small party of oil men began the slow and laborious task of drilling into the ground. It was almost certain that none of the onlookers could have realised what tremendous consequences the event would have for Sarawak. They watched the strange goings on no doubt with the same avid interest with which their grandchildren were later to greet the spectacle of the first offshore rig.
Back in 1910, wooden derricks were the order of the day. The well was spudded in on August 10. Drilling by the old cable tool method - a system used by the Chinese in AD421 for drilling salt - was slow. But on 22nd December 1910, oil was struck at 425 feet brought into production. The oil was pumped up by means of a beam with a large revolving bull wheel driven by engine.
Soon the landscape below was dotted with similar derricks plotting the Miri Field. Initial production was 83 barrels daily. When the 11,322 barrels had been produced, it was decided to deepen the well, and further drilling took the depth to 1,096 feet. Production, which then came from several layers of sand, increased to 132 barrels daily.
Hose must have been well pleased with the result of all those years of careful exploration and mapping. In his book "Fifty Years of Romance and Research", he describes the development of the oil resources of Sarawak as one of the most satisfactory enterprises of the many which he was concerned during his life in Sarawak.
Ernest Hose, his brother, was to recall in later years that the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company had offered Charles a considerable sum of money for his services, but the latter refused it saying he would rather have a royalty on the production. This gave him a source of income he enjoyed for many years.
Charles Hose died in November 1929. Apart from his invaluable work on oil in the State, he distingiushed himself while in Sarawak as a geographer, anthropologist and collector of natural history specimens. His journeys into the interior of the Baram District brought him into contact with the tribes who knew very little of the 20th century civilisation. His ingenuity, shrewdness and understanding of the native character enabled him, with only a small armed force, to keep the peace for twenty between the local tribesmen over a large stretch of the Baram River. He carefully studied and recorded the ways and customs of the river folk and wrote numerous works on the subject. This knowledge almost certainly saved his life on one occasion when he fell seriously ill with beri-beri, one of the worst scourges in the East. He put to good use his observation that natives using unpolished rice were inmune. It was a most useful contribution to the medical history, since not only did Hose cure himself but countless others who came after have made use of this simple means of avoiding the disease.
He was the member of the Council Negri 1894 - 1906 and even after his retirement in 1907, found time and energy to serve on the Sarawak State Advisory Council in England. He also supported a project to restore Nelson's flagship. There appears to be something coincidental in his interest in the British NAvy's proudest possession, since one of the reasons for his enthusiasm for oil was the realisation that it must eventually replace coal as a fuel for warships. It might well be that Rajah caught some of this enthusiasm when he insisted that a clause should be inserted into his agreement with the oil company by which 10,000 tons of Sarawak oil should always be kept in storage fir the use of the British Navy. It is believed to have been the first political clause ever inserted into a commercial contract in the history of the British Empire.
Well No.1's ricketty wooden structure came to be known affectionately as the Grand Old Lady of Miri and was to survive into the next century.
History of Miri
Like most cities, Miri has a rich history. What started out as a small settlement of fishing village, Miri is now a modern city, some one hundred years later.
At the time of the spudding in of Well No.1, Miri was just a small rural kampong (village).
Here are very detailed information on the growth and development of what we now call the Miri Resort City.
This section is constantly being updated in sections. Please come back in the future for more information on the history of Miri.
1.'Earth Oil'
2.The Early Days
3.A little excitement
4.Decline and war
5.Rehabilitation
6.Royal Occasions
7.Coming of Age
8.'The Oil Town'
9.'A Resort City Status'
| ©2007