He stayed in Indonesia until 1895, before returning to the Netherlands to focus on the commercial end of the business. With a small group of workers-'I demand the nearly impossible but there is no choice everything rests on my shoulders'-Kessler again managed to turn things around and tripled oil production within a year. Kessler again returned to Sumatra to save the infant company. But within two years, oil production had dramatically declined, the new on-site works manager had quit and the company was nearly bankrupt. Kessler returned to the Netherlands, nearly nine months after his 'inspection trip' began, and focused on trying to secure the necessary capital for the still shaky enterprise. 28, 1892, the first oil flowed through the new pipe to the refinery. With the greatest difficulty, Kessler and his team were able to get the supplies for a second tower. Kessler, suffering from a fever, worked day and night and was everywhere with improvisations, giving instructions and managing the overall operation. A storm interrupted the supply of rice, resulting in severe food shortages. Steamkettles were transported through a jungle path on rails, which were removed after the kettles had been pulled up in order to be used for the next stretch. In constant rain, Kessler attempted to connect the drilling site and refinery with a pipeline.

Heaven preserve me from all that misery.' 'If things go wrong, my job and my name are gone and perhaps my sacrifices and my extraordinary exertions will be repaid with censure in the bargain. Quoting from Kessler's letters to his wife, Yergin illustrates the obstacles faced by the daring oil explorer: 'Half-heartedness, ignorance, indifference, dilapidation, disorder, and vexation are everywhere apparent,' Kessler reported. He said that 'Kessler was a born leader, with an iron will, and with the ability to concentrate all his own energy and that of those around him on a single objective.' Due to his ability to quickly solve all kinds of technical problems and his incredible energy, he was accepted by his subordinates as 'Toean Besor'-the Big Boss-not withstanding what many would describe as a difficult, high-strung personality.ĭaniel Yergin, in his history of oil The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power wrote that 'more than any other man', Kessler was responsible for the survival of the Royal Dutch. But he plunged into his work with enormous energy. He discovered that the drilling site was in terrible shape, with essential supplies disappearing or strewn about in the constantly approaching jungle. 'There were also financial, regulatory and procedual hurdles to overcome.The Company survived mainly thanks to the turn-around effected by Jean Baptiste August Kessler.' Īs Anthony Sampson put it, the company's origins belonged 'to the world of Joseph Conrad rather than Anthony Trollope.' When Kessler arrived in Sumatra in October 1891, after a two-month sea voyage, he found that the works manager had disappeared in a huff. Poley in Eroica: The Quest for Oil in Indonesia (1850-1898). Kessler built the Royal Dutch almost from scratch, under very difficult circumstances: 'an inclement climate, a hostile jungle and ineradicable lalang (sharp, tough grass), local crews difficult to manage, equipment that did not fit, tropical diseases, operational set-backs such as fires, and absence of adequate geological know-how', wrote J. Builder of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company He had become partner in Tiedeman & Van Kerchem, an important business firm, but after financial difficulties in 1888 'returned broken and shattered in health to Europe, where he sought and found recovery'. Kessler had vast experience in the Dutch East Indies, having abandoned his studies at the Delft University at the age of 23 to seek his fortune there. He took the post with the understanding he would be made managing director and run the company. The board of directors turned to Kessler, who was a son-in-law of Geldolph Adriaan De Lange, one of the directors, to head a committee of inquiry into whether the faltering enterprise was still viable. Aeilko Jans Zijlker acquired the original oil concession in Indonesia and the 'Royal' imprimatur but died suddenly of a tropical disease in 1890. He became managing director of the Royal Dutch nearly from its inception. Kessler, who was known by his middle name August, was born in a family of 12 children, four of whom died in infancy. 2 Builder of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company.

Jean baptiste de langy