{{Unsourced, date=September 2013
Rumbai at present is a district of
Pekanbaru
Pekanbaru is the capital of Indonesian province of Riau, and a major economic center on the eastern part of Sumatra, Sumatra Island. Its name is derived from the Malay language, Malay words for 'new market' ('pekan' is market and 'baru' is new). ...
,
Riau Province
Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Accordi ...
,
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. It was founded in the early 1950s as the Sumatra headquarters of
Caltex
Caltex is a petroleum brand name of Chevron Corporation used in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. It is also the brand name of non-Chevron petroleum companies in some countries (such as New Zealand, and previously ...
Pacific Oil Company, now known as Chevron Pacific Indonesia, on the shores of the
Siak River
The Siak (Sungai Siak) is a river of Riau province, in the east of Sumatra, Indonesia, about 1000 km northwest of the capital Jakarta. Approximately 370 kilometres in length, the Siak is a blackwater river which owes its brown color to diss ...
. In the early 1950s, Rumbai could only be reached from the outside world by river boat, from Pekanbaru or from
Bengkalis Bengkalis (''Kota Bengkalis'') was the seat (capital) of Bengkalis Regency in the Riau province of Indonesia until 8 July 2013, when it became an independent city. It is located on Bengkalis Island. The city had a population of 66,211.
Bengkalis ha ...
. A road was built by Caltex to the
Minas
Minas or MINAS may refer to:
People with the given name Minas
* Menas of Ethiopia (died 1563)
* Saint Menas (Minas, 285–309)
* Minias of Florence (Minas, Miniato, died 250)
* Minas Alozidis (born 1984), Greek hurdler
* Minas Avetisyan (1928†...
and
Duri oilfields and camps. Caltex staff (mostly American) traveled to Rumbai, Minas and Duri by plane from Jakarta or Singapore to Pekanbaru airport and then by boat across to Rumbai. The oil camp of Rumbai was a completely self-contained mostly expatriate community with offices, homes, school, hospital, water treatment, diesel generators, commissary, country club, swimming pool, and golf course.
In 1958 a floating bridge was built by Caltex over the Siak River. Also, by 1962 Caltex had built an oil port and company town at the fishing village of
Dumai
Dumai ( Jawi: , ), is a city in Riau province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The city has an area of 1,727.38 km2 and had 253,803 inhabitants at the 2010 census, 285,448 at the 2015 census and 316,782 at the 2020 census. Dumai has a d ...
on the coast, and connected Duri to Dumai by road.
Pekanbaru