Sarawak lebih dulu menemui minyak dari Brunei
Tidak ramai yang mengetahui bahawa Sarawak telah menemui minyak terlebih dahulu dari Brunei. Peri betapa susahnya Brunei mencarigali minyak mungkin tidak diketahui oleh generasi sekarang, apatah lagi dengan pengeluaran minyak Brunei sehingga mencecah 200,000 tong sehari.(The Brunei Post, 2007)
Fakta sejarah yang tidak diketahui umum adalah minyak dijumpai terlebih dahulu di Sarawak. Pada zaman dulu penduduk kawasan Piasau, Miri menggali tanah dan ketulan tanah bersama minyak yang dinamakan minyak tanah dijadikan bahan bakar. Malah plak bagi menandakan tapak telaga minyak boleh dijumpai di Taman Awam Piasau, Miri, Sarawak.
Minyak mulai dicarigali di atas Bukit Canada, Miri pada tahun 1900. Pada tahun 1911, Syarikat British Borneo Petroleum Syndicate Limited. mula mencarigali minyak secara komersil di Sarawak. Umum tidak mengetahui bahawa sehingga tahun 1926, Brunei masih belum menemui hasil kekayaan bumi. Rujukan bagaimana Brunei menemui minyak dilampirkan di bawah (The Brunei Post,2007).
Kesah dari sudut ketakwaan hamba Allah dan cerita wali
Mungkin juga ramai yang tak mengetahui bahawa di negara Brunei Darul Salam, tiada tempat arak dan perjudian yang dibenarkan. Baru baru ini keluar berita bagaimana Brunei menolak permohonan seorang Cina untuk kelulusan zon khas bebas arak kerana Brunei takut dilaknat azab Allah (Rujuk keratan akhbar di atas)
Mungkin tak ramai yang kaitkan dengan cerita popular yang berlegar di kalngan rakyat negeri itu bagaimana minyak boleh dijumpai di Brunei.
Sehingga tahun 1926, rakyat Brunei hidup susah kerana kehilangan jajahan takluknya iaitu Sarawak kepada Keluarga Brook, Rajah Puteh di Sarawak. Sedangkan di Sarawak, potensi negeri itu maju terlalu banyak apatahlagi minyak didapati di dalam kawasan pantai (in-shore) di Miri (hanya kemudiannya operasi mencarigali minyak berpindah ke persisiran pantai Miri, Sarawak -kawasan off shore)
Oleh itu atas nasihat alim ulama, Sultan Brunei ketika itu, Sultan Sharif Ali menjemput 7 orang wali terkenal di Asia Tenggara untuk menetap, beramal dan berdzikir di tanah Brunei. Berkat doa para wali, dengan izin Allah, tongkat yang dipacak oleh para wali memancutkan minyak.
Moral Cerita dan perbandingan kesah di Kelantan
Pada masa kini, selain Sarawak, minyak dijumpai di luar kawasan persisiran pantai Terengganu. Sebenarnya, menurut cerita itu lagi takungan minyak berada di antara 2 lapisan tanah tidak telap air di antara Brunei dan Terengganu. Terengganu sebenarnya tidak layak untuk menerima wang royalty minyak kerana telaga minyak didapati diluar persisiran pantai Terengganu. Di atas sifat belas kasihan Allahyarham Tun Abdul Razak, Terengganu yang pada masa itu masih mundur diberikan juga Wang Ehsan bagi memajukan negeri. Maka perjanjian Wang Ehsan termeterai antara bekas Menteri Besar Terengganu waktu itu Datuk Wan Mokhtar (UMNO) dengan Kerajaan Pusat.
Lewat ini timbul pula polemik bila Kelantan menuntut hak yang sama malah mahukan royalty minyak dari Kerajaan Persekutuan. Malah rakyat didakyah untuk mempercayai bahawa Kelantan berhak menuntut royalty minyak walhal telaga minyak yang didapati 170 km di luar persisiran pantai. Setelah perbincangan, Kerajaan Persekutuan bersetuju memberikan Wang Ehsan, hak yang sama yang dinikmati oleh Terengganu. Tetapi Kerajaan Negeri Kelantan tidak bersyukur kepada rezeki yang Allah berikan, angkuh, malah berura-ura hendak menyaman Kerajaan Pusat kerana masih mahukan wang royalty minyak yang bukan miliknya.
Berbalik kepada isu minyak, mungkin dari satu sudut, lebih logik pembaca memperpercayai pendapat pakar geologist bahawa minyak terjadi dari proses perubahan kimia haiwan dan pokok yang termendap beribu-ribu tahun dulu di dasar perut bumi sehingga menjadi hidrokarbon berharga. Tapi kesah tadi mengingatkan kita bahawa segala rezeki yang dilimpahkan di muka bumi ini juga terjadi dengan izin Allah. Juga betapa besarnya hasil memuliakan para ulama dan wali.
Kekadang saya terfikir, benarkah Kelantan memuliakan para ulama dan para walinya? Jika tidak tentu tidak timbul polemik Kerajaan Negeri Kelantan dengan Tok Guru pondok yang sesetengahnya bertaraf wali (Rujuk petikan artikel luahan Tok Guru Hj Abdullah Hj Sama'ah Pondok Geting di sini http://anakbukitgantang.blogspot.com/2010/04/perlembagaan-malaysia-berpandukan-islam.html ) dan luahan tok- tok guru pondok lain seperti Allahyarham Tok Ayah Mat Jibril, Tok Imam Mansor, Tok Ayah Bidin, Tok Ayah Mat Pohon Tanjung di sini http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=358919387591&topic=13759
Saya juga ingin membawa pembaca berfikir, layakkah Kelantan menerima nikmat anugerah kenikmatan ( minyak)...seperti Brunei yang mana telah memuliakan para wali nya???
Mungkin ayat Al Quran ini dapat membuatkan kita terfikir betapa jauh bedanya Brunei berbanding Kelantan.
Dan carilah kepada apa yang telah dianugerahkan Allah kepadamu(kebahagian negeri akhirat) dan janganlah kamu melupakan bahagianmu dari kenikmatan (duniawi), dan berbuat baiklah kepada orang lain, sebagaimana Allah telah berbuat baik kepadamu, dan janganlah kamu berbuat kerosakan di muka bumi. Sesungguhnya Allah tidak menyukai orang-orang yang berbuat kerosakan ( Surah Al Qashash (28) : Ayat 77 )
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HOW OIL WAS DISCOVERED IN BRUNEI
by Rozan Yunos
The story of the discovery of oil in Brunei’s oil town, Seria has often been told even in school text books but no body remembers how difficult it was to find oil in Brunei Darussalam at the beginning.
When we look at the approximately 200,000 barrels of oil that our nation produced daily and the billions of revenues that we get from the sale of oil and gas, it is a wonder that it was ever found in the first place.
By the early 20th century, Brunei, once a powerful regional thalassocracy (maritime power) had become a poor country. Brunei had lost almost all of its territories and was confined to the current tiny area in the vast Borneo Island. It needed something of a miracle and it found it when oil was discovered in Brunei and in particular in abundance where Brunei is currently.
Oil has been more or less expected to be found in the North West Borneo area. By the mid 19th century, seepages have been reported in a number of places and oil prospectors have come in droves flooding in to Borneo and into Brunei all hoping to be the lucky person to find that oil.
Oil prospectors tried drilling in a number of places. In Labuan, a hole was actually drilled there as early as 1866. In Brunei, an oil seepage was reported in the late 19th century. It was at a place called Ayer Bekunci near Kampung Kasat which is around the Sungai Kebun area in Kampong Ayer and just across the Brunei River from the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, then known as Pekan Brunei.
A well was drilled for the first time in Brunei in 1899. The drilling went down as deep as 850 feet but unfortunately no oil was discovered. After that attempt, interest in finding oil in Brunei waned.
But that all changed when in 1910, oil was discovered in the neighbouring district of Sarawak, Miri. That renewed the flagging interest of discovering oil in Brunei Darussalam. In 1911, a geological survey for Brunei was conducted by the British Borneo Petroleum Syndicate Limited. (The first Oil Well in Miri , Le Grand Ole Lady , was drilled on Canada Hill in Miri in 1900-ABG's note)
A number of other companies were also given oil prospecting and mining rights to find oil in Brunei Darussalam. The British Borneo Petroleum Syndicate Limited was given 169 square miles in the Belait District. The Shanghai Langkat Company from Singapore was given a small area in Jerudong. The Nederland Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij, a Dutch Company in the Belait District, The Anglo Saxon Petroleum Company Limited in the Tutong District and Asiatic Petroleum Company (Federated Malay States) Limited was also given rights. The latter two are Shell Group companies.
All the companies mined between 1912 to 1923 and between all of them, in those 12 years, they only had one ‘oilshow’ (the character or traces of oil showing or present) but all the other oil wells in all the districts were dry. As a result most of them abandoned their operations with the exception of Shell. It bought the Petroleum Syndicate’s rights and from 1923 onwards, Shell began serious exploration works in the Belait District. Belait District, being the area adjoining the Miri District in Sarawak looked to be quite promising to Shell as it had already produced oil commercially there.
However Shell did not have that much success in the beginning. In Labi, the British Malayan Petroleum Company (BMP), the Shell company drilled a few oil wells and one produced oil even though the amount was not of commercial quantities. Another produced gas at high pressure.
It wasn’t until 1926 before the search for oil began in earnest in Seria. The story oft been told regarding the discovery was that a Mr. F.F. Mariott, then BMP’s Field Superintendent in Labi and and a Mr. T.G. Cochrane (later Lord Cochrane), then the General Manager of Sarawak Oilfields Limited, another Shell company were on the way towards Kuala Belait from Miri. They stopped at Kuala Balai, then considered as the capital of the Belait District and used two bicycles to visit a geophysicist in the Lumut area.
It was a relatively long journey and they stopped at Padang Berawa, near Sungai Seria to rest. That was when Cochrane smelled oil and told the geophysicist to suggest the survey further south to Padang Berawa. At that time Padang Berawa (wild pigeon’s field) was unknown and was described as a swamp and the conditions in that area was terrible.
However a number of gas seepages were reported and when analysed at Shell Headquarters in Holland indicated that it was methane and ethane gas indicating the possibility of oil gas. A detailed survey was conducted and coreholes were drilled. The first proper oil well named S-1 was drilled in July 1928 near the beach and struck oil and gas at 974 feet when it began flowing. And the rest is history.
Padang Berawa as a name disappeared from the records and Seria named after Sungai Seria became the new name for the newly created town. It took quite a while before Seria was established. In the early days, all equipment had to ferried in. The first buildings were relatively primitive.
It wasn’t until 1938 that the road connecting Kuala Belait and Seria was completed. Before that, one had to drive along the beach and wait for the tides to go out. It was the same from Seria to the capital. It wasn’t until the early 1960s that the road from Kuala Belait to Bandar Seri Begawan (then Pekan Brunei) was finally connected.
As a side note, it is interesting to note that the company name ‘Shell’ was not visible in all the early Shell companies that operated in Brunei. The discovery of oil in Seria was made by a Shell company called Sarawak Oilfields Limited and the oil production was operated by another Shell company called British Malayan Petroleum Company Limited. The Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Limited did not operate until 1957.
[Note: An edited version of the above article was published in The Golden Legacy column in The Brunei Times dated 12th May 2007.]
Source: The Brunei Times
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