YOGYAKARTA – Energy need is increasing along with increasing population and economic growth. Oil and gas industry has problems due to the limited new oil and gas fields. There are concerns of a big gap between energy fulfillment and supply by year 2025. “Now, there are no new oil and gas fields in the world. (Oil and gas) will be found in deep seas, the north and south poles, and unstable geographical and geopolitical places, which would extend the gap,” said President Director of Shell Indonesia, Darwin Silalahi, who became speaker in the Building Sustainable Career in Energy and Mining Industry talks in the auditorium of Sukadji Ranuwihardjo, Faculty of Economics and Business UGM, Saturday (9/3).
Darwin said Indonesia previously known as world potential oil and gas source was also facing the problem of limited supplies. “When economy is entering industrialisation, the country has to be able to drive energy need through oil and gas industry,” he said.
Becoming president director of the largest multinational oil and gas corporation, according to Darwin, gave pride to him. The company was established in Indonesia by a former Dutch plantation foreman, Aeliko Jans Zijklert. In 1880 he found black liquid in the plantation of telaga said in Deli, North Sumatera. The sample was sent to Batavia for research. After it was known that it was oil, he decided to quit his job as foreman and returned to Holland.
He was seeking people who had experiences in drilling oil fields. He then sold his idea to his business counterparts.
One year passed, Zijklert conducted drilling in the telaga said but it brought no success as the well was dry. But he did not give up hope, he went to another drilling project in telaga said 2, this time he succeeded. “That was the first finding of oil in Indonesia. That was also the start of oil and gas industry which is now known as Shell,” he explained.
Despite its first operation in Indonesia, along with the times, the company has evolved into the world largest oil and gas company. It also covers LNG, even became a pioneer in geothermal processing innovation into energy. The experience to be learned from Shell, however, according to Darwin, is the condition of someone who leaves his comfort zone to become an entrepreneur. “A plantation foreman dares to leave the comfort zone. The daring move became the start of Shell,” he said.