SOCONY, The Trace of Rockefeller in Semarang

Petroleum industry since in the late of 19th century was became a freshly new lucrative mining industry in the world. Indonesia or Netherlands East Indie  in the old days became became the fourth-largest exporters of oil after the US, the USSR, and Iran during the first half of the 20th century. As for Saudi Arabia, its oil deposits weren’t discovered till 1938 and no one knew how much they had till after the war. The Petroleum industry in Netherlands East Indie started in Pangkalan Brandan, North Sumatera in 1883. Soon its attracted another petroleum company to do the oil exploration in these Dutch colonies.  One of them, was the company of one’s of the world famous tycoon from the United States of America, SOCONY. SOCONY currently part of the Exxon-Mobile company, one's of the major petroleoum company in world.

SOCONY former headquarter in Semarang, currently occupied by
Hotel Pelangi. The numberings of the building in the area that never changed
since the colonial period, made it easy to track its location although the
name of the street indeed was completely different.

SOCONY history dates from the late 19th century as part of American John D. Rockefeller’s oil giant Standard Oil. Rockefeller, along with Maurice B. Clark and Englishman Samuel Andrews, founded Standard Oil in 1870 in Cleveland, Ohio after investing in an oil refinery in 1863. Following a trust agreement in 1882, the Standard Oil Company of New York was created, the predecessor to SOCONY-Vacuum and later the Mobil Corporation. In the next decades, the company spread its business to Europe and Asia, and employed the use of large ‘kerosene clippers’ to transport their material overseas. 1911 marked the end of the giant consortium of 34 Standard Oil companies after an antitrust suit forced Rockefeller’s conglomerate to split. Standard Oil Company of New York was now a spin-off company of the original Standard Oil, and became known as SOCONY (an acronym for its full name).

view from the terrace of the former SOCONY office in Semarang, situated in its 2nd floor and it has a great panoramic view toward the Tawang Railway Station. 

SOCONY begin to open their business in Netherlands East Indie  as its announced in De Indische Courant in February 7th 1922 as one of its vessel arrived directly from United States, carrying 1.500 boxes of petrol (old form of carrying the petrol with capacity of 20 litres each box). Soon, the service station of SOCONY spread all over Netherlands East Indie, serve the people who was in the first generation of automobile. Four year later in 1926, SOCONY already had its offices in several cities like Weltevreden (currently Jakarta Pusat areas), Semarang, Cilacap, Bandung, Surabaya and Makassar.  Their office in Semarang was still exist until today but its changed into a hotel named Hotel Pelangi in the Kota Lama, an old town areas of Semarang. The building although very modest but it has a great view toward the Tawang train station, the most artistic railway station building in Indonesia. Another interesting story about this three-story building was, once it became a silent witness of the Nelson Rockefeller visits during his trip to Netherlands East Indies in the end of 1930.     

One out of the few original part that remains in the
former SOCONY office in Semarang.

The visit of  Nelson Rockefeller itself which is the The visit this Rockefeller Jr became a hit for the newspaper in Netherlands East Indies where several newsapaper wrote an articles about this events like Bataviasch Nieuwsblad, Het nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië, etc. Nelson took His wife also during His trip, and started in Bali as their first destination in 27 November 1930. Then they crossing the Balinese strait into Java and visiting Tosari village for the famous Bromo Mountain. After that a stop in Surabaya and then continues to Yogyakarta, where they spent several days there. Accompanied by J.B. Emmert, the general-manager of SOCONY in Batavia, they drove a car to the north, to Semarang. The head of SOCONY in Semarang , W.F.C. Nieuwhuizen indeed busy with the reception over this honorary guest. During His visit in Semarang, the Mr and Mrs. Nelson A Rockefeller spent a night at Hotel Du Pavillon, later known as Hotel Dibya Puri.  After Semarang, they took a planes to Bandung, before then to Batavia and back to the United States of America.