Tarakan Island
Coordinates: 3°21′0″N 117°34′0″E / 3.35000°N 117.56667°E
Tarakan is an island off the coast of North Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is a marshy island situated in the western Celebes Sea, off the northeastern coast of Borneo. The island occupies an area of 117 square miles (303.0 square kilometres).
The island contains the city of Tarakan, which is the only city in the province of North Kalimantan.
Dutch explorers noted oil seepages in 1863. Oil extraction began in 1906. Tarakan oil field produced a light, sour crude oil with an unusually low pour point. By 1940 the island had an oil refinery with four petroleum loading piers, and was one of the five largest petroleum processing centers in the East Indies.
Japanese oil fields in Sakhalin and Formosa provided only about ten percent of the petroleum needed to sustain Japanese industry. Reserves of California crude oil at Japanese refineries would have been exhausted in less than two years at the rate of consumption when United States terminated exports to Japan on 26 July 1941. Japan initiated hostilities against the United States and the United Kingdom four months later in preparation for seizing alternative sources of petroleum in the East Indies. Japan declared war on the Netherlands East Indies on 10 January 1942; and Japanese troops landed on Tarakan the following day. Dutch forces had declared war on Japan a month earlier, and sabotaged the oil field and refinery prior to surrender.
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