Arakan Library - the Arakan Oil Fields

Arakan: - One Who Preserves and Takes Care of Their Own Nationality.

Publication by Arakan Action Association (AAA.)

Arakan Library was founded by a group of Arakan Action Association (AAA) in exile in Thailand from Burma in 2007 doing to voice for the knowledge, the people democratic and human rights.

Arakan Action Association (AAA)

Chotana Road , Chaing Mai ( 50301 ), Thailand.

Email : arakanactionassociation@walla.com , +66—089-637-4383, +66—053-409-577

Oil in Burma

by <Marilyn v. Longuir>

The Rise and Decline of the Arakan Oil Fields

In retrospect, the oil industry of Arakan can be seen as simply a footnote to Burmese economic history. Nevertheless, this industry concentrated on three islands off the Arakan coast, represented the first serious attempt by Europeans to engage in the production of petroleum in British Burma. That the attempt was a commercial failure dose not detract from its significance. In fact we can marvel at these almost forgotten oil miners optimism was defeated by a lack of sufficient preparatory exploration and by nature itself rather than by their drilling skills and equipment. The Arakan fields, despite a history of local production, were not rich enough to sustain a large-scale commercial industry.

The British had been exploring the islands off the Arakan coast since the 1830s and knew of mus volcanoes and oil seepages, but world-wide interest in oil was not sparked until August 1859 when the first oil well was successfully drilled in Pennsylvania. As world usage of petroleum products like kerosene expanded in the decade following this success, some oil prospectors and speculators began to look to Southeast Asia. While the Dutch turned to the Netherlands East Indies, in the 1860s British prospectors began to explore both Pegu' and Arakan.

In Arakan, no hereditary monopoly existed as among the twinzayo families at Yenangyaung. However, for centuries Arakanese residents had been collecting oil from seepage. As in central Burma, crude oil was used for preserving wooden buildings, for caulking boats (the main means of transport in Arakan), for illumination in rudimentary lamps made from half a coconut shell, for lubricating cart wheels, and sometimes was taken for medicinal purposes. It was also used for waterproofing paper used for umbrellas (Brown and Dey,370)

In British Burma, Arakan represented the most logical area for exploration. In the early years, prospectors, without the help of geologists, simply looked for oil seepages and pools and drilled nearby. As the Government of India was eager to build and oil industry in British Burma, official encouragement was given to the early Arakan oil –explorers though reduced fees and royalties. Even so, the experiment failed.

Out of the failure of the Arakan oil ventures, however, two unexpected benefits accrued respectively for the British administration and the Burma Oil Company, the first company to drill for oil at Yenangyaung in Upper Burma. In 1886 the British annexed Upper Burma. As a result of their experiences in Arakan, when Yenangyaung finally came under their jurisdiction the British authorities were at least partly prepared to control a successful oil industry. As for Burmah Oil, the failure of the Arakan oil companies may have deterred possible rivals from investing in the Upper Burma fields. To place the Arakan industry in perspective, comparative production figures are illuminating. Over the period 1900-39, the Arakan fields produced 1,983,582 gallons, the equivalent of just one week's production at Yenangyaung in 1939 (Brown and Dey, 370).