Sumatra, WWII - it was all about the oil

[fat tony]

http://www.combinedfleet.com/SumatraOil.htm

Oil Fields, Refineries and Storage Centers
Under Imperial Japanese Army Control
By Bob Hackett

© Bob Hackett February 2013
Revision 2

During World War II, the Japanese Army controlled the former Royal Dutch Shell oil refineries in Sumatra including Pangkalan Brandan and Pladjoe (Pladju) and Standard-Vacuum Oil Company's (Stanvac) refinery at Sungei (Soengai) Gerong.

The oil refined at the small Pangkalan Brandan refinery in northern Sumatra was transported to port facilities at nearby Pangkalan Susu and from there directly to Singapore, Malaya and other locations in the region.

The center of oil production was at Prabumulih, 43 miles from Palembang in southern Sumatra, now the second-largest city in Sumatra, after Medan. Crude was transported via pipelines to the large Pladjoe refinery, a few miles north of Palembang. In February 1942, the Japanese 2nd Parachute Regiment captured Pladjoe intact. The Japanese later named Pladjoe the "No. 1 Refinery" and was managed by Nihon Sekiyu. It was capble of refining 45, 000 barrels a day and its speciality was high octane aviation gasoline production.

Prewar, Stanvac, a joint venture between Jersey Standard (Esso) and Socony-Vacuum (Mobil), also operated several oil fields and transported its crude to its Sungei Gerong refinery, east of Palembang city. captured Pladjoe intact. After the Japanese captured Sungei Gerong they named it the "No. 2 Refinery". It was also capble of refining 45, 000 barrels a day and was managed by Mitsubishi Sekiyu. Together, these two refineries - the largest in Southeast Asia - had a reported annual capacity of 20,460,000 barrels of crude and were capable of producing 78 per cent of Japan's aviation gasoline and 22 per cent of its fuel oil.

Interesting to see a period pic of a B29 which is apparently not left 'in the white'



Supposedly earlier B29s were painted olive drab with grey undersides.
More at the link.

 

[eos]

Early B-29s were given the usual OD/Grey treatment for a very short time. Reduced range/increased drag from the paint combined with what amounted to total air superiority meant that it was unnecessary and polished metal became the norm.

 

[purple]

It's been about the oil for a long time. Both the Japs and Germans were crippled and oil starved by allied bombing and ground advances as WW2 progressed. The allies had some big challenges for fuel as well. A couple of examples were the initial B-29 bombing campaign from China where a good percentage of bombers were actually tied up ferrying 45 gal drums of avgas from India over the hump to China. Then we had our own Canol refinery/pipeline project at Normal Wells which was to supply oil to the Americans in the Alaska/Aleutians theatre as a precaution against the Japs sinking tankers en route from the US west coast to Alaska.

We can go back to the WW1 period where access to Iraqi oil was a big goal for the Brits who needed to fuel the Navy and keep the sealanes open to India thru the Suez canal. This ultimately led to how the Brits decided to parcel up the Middle east post- WW1, a problem that we are still living with today. Then there's Saudi oil. Both the Brits and American started whoring for Saudi oil in WW2 and it continues to the present.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Couple of the refineries at Ploesti were american owned as well. Lack of fuel is what did the German army in at the end.

Grizz

 

[lawn gnome]

A big reason that Japan went to war was due to the US emargo of oil against Japan.
I am not sure if the Dutch cooperated with the embargo or if the US simply intervened and enforced an embargo against the Japanese from Dutch Indonesia.

The big goal was to destroy the USN in order to seize the oilfields and resources.

 

[islandguy]

Oil, tin, and rubber were the primary material objectives.
Getting rid of the whites in SE Asia was the other objective.

 

[donor]

The 462nd Bomb Group "Hellbirds"eight minelaying B-29s had better luck. Dipping under the 1,000-foot ceiling to only 500 feet above the Musi River, they strafed Japanese ships and sowed 16 mines - the first such mining use of B-29s. They claimed three ships sunk, damage to two more and closed the river approach to the refinery for a month.

That I haven't heard before.Seeing B-29 dropping mines low and slow would be very hazardous and incredible sight in itself.

 

[shredder]

Oil, tin, and rubber were the primary material objectives.
Getting rid of the whites in SE Asia was the other objective.

You're absolutely right, there was (and is) no oil in the Japanese Home Islands, and there's damned little tin and rubber there. They had to occupy Southeast Asia in order to get the oil, tin, rubber, and rice they needed to keep their war economy going.

 

[Coyote Ugly]

And Bombing the Ball Bearing Factories in Schweinfurt - No Ball Bearings, the Wheels of Industry, Production and anything that depends on it soon come to a grinding halt...The World runs on Grease and Balls.

Couple of the refineries at Ploesti were american owned as well. Lack of fuel is what did the German army in at the end.

Grizz

 

[can14]

The Germans already controlled France. The Japanese invaded Indo China because they had no oil because the Amercans cut them off. They
used American oil to invade China. Japan had no oil to begin with and had little to no chance of winning a war against industrial America and Canada.
The japanese Navy knew it. They were loosing in China and Russia was waiting with many army divisions when the war began. Japan couldnt replace
equipment losses when th war started

 

[fat tony]

It's been about the oil for a long time. Both the Japs and Germans were crippled and oil starved by allied bombing and ground advances as WW2 progressed. The allies had some big challenges for fuel as well. A couple of examples were the initial B-29 bombing campaign from China where a good percentage of bombers were actually tied up ferrying 45 gal drums of avgas from India over the hump to China. Then we had our own Canol refinery/pipeline project at Normal Wells which was to supply oil to the Americans in the Alaska/Aleutians theatre as a precaution against the Japs sinking tankers en route from the US west coast to Alaska.

We can go back to the WW1 period where access to Iraqi oil was a big goal for the Brits who needed to fuel the Navy and keep the sealanes open to India thru the Suez canal. This ultimately led to how the Brits decided to parcel up the Middle east post- WW1, a problem that we are still living with today. Then there's Saudi oil. Both the Brits and American started whoring for Saudi oil in WW2 and it continues to the present.

What is your opinion on Operation Iraqi Freedom wrt "it was all about the oil"?

In my humble opinion, that and some of the other purported reasons for invading Iraq do not add up. As the activists crowed so loudly about 'it was all about the oil' it seems to me that any rational discussion on the issue was quelled. This is similar to the: "it is all about the weather" political teeth gnashing which has forever quelled rational discussion of that subject.

 

[purple]

What is your opinion on Operation Iraqi Freedom wrt "it was all about the oil"?

In my humble opinion, that and some of the other purported reasons for invading Iraq do not add up. As the activists crowed so loudly about 'it was all about the oil' it seems to me that any rational discussion on the issue was quelled. This is similar to the: "it is all about the weather" political teeth gnashing which has forever quelled rational discussion of that subject.

The first thing that I learned when I studied geopolitics was to define just what a nation's interests are in a particular scenario/situation. Nations do act on their interests as they see them, and at times they will fight for them.

IMHO the short answer on OIF is that it wasn't oil that triggered the US decision to Invade Iraq. I believe that it was an ideologically driven decision by Bush 2 and crew to depose Hussein and to put out an example of a post-dictatorial democratic regime in the middle east for others to follow. They succeeded in the first part but failed miserably in the second because they didn't to think it through beforehand. Was oil on their list of secondary interests? You bet it was and they even said so. US policy in the region since first jumping in bed with the Saudis in 1945 has been to either secure the supply of ME oil for themselves and allies and to deny it to others. WMD and the presence of Al Qaeda were used to justify the war, but these were demonstrably untrue. Iraqi oil exports had resumed after the 1991 Gulf War and the oil was flowing when Bush invaded in 2003. One of the initial military objectives was to secure the Iraqi oil fields and oil ports.

I'd give a longer opinion, but that would take 4 fingers of good scotch and a bit more idle time to hammer it out.

Its interesting to define just what a nation's interests are in the world and its sometimes useful to look at what others have to say about you. Canada is used as a geopolitical textbook example of a country with a lot of potential that keeps wasting our time and energies on placating internal differences and minorities (mostly French vs English, but now other minorities, natives, socialists and environmentalists) and therefore never applies our true potential to gain what we might otherwise be capable of achieving. I can't find a lot of reasons to dispute this.

Ever try to define what Canada's interests are in the world? A short list might include a wish not to offend anyone, the perpetuation of hockey, to act as a beacon of multicultural toleration and accommodation and the promotion of Canadian exports. These are hardly interests to fight for, although countries have fought for trade and economics in the past and some still do. No surprise that we see our new Government talking and acting the way that they are. The protection and advancement of national interests also includes the need to maintain a strong military capability, something that we are not prepared to do. For many years we have defaulted our security to the US while continuing to criticize them. Lucky us, because we've pulled it off on the cheap to this point. Times are 'a changing though and we now have many hungry eyes sizing up the resource rich Arctic, including the Americans. Who knows, the penny might just drop for us and cause us to get serious about developing some viable capabilities to protect our interests in the north.

When I visited the US State Department to participate in discussions about US-Canada relations I was somewhat surprised to find us, in our opinion the closest American ally, lumped in with the European Division. Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.