Thursday 10 February 2011
kuala belait is the 2nd largest town in brunei darussalam. 'the mouth of the belait river' literally means kuala belait. its name comes from kuala meaning either confluence of two rivers or the mouth of a river, certainly belait is the name of the river & the district (bandar seri begawan is the capital city of brunei darussalam).
it's located close to the western border of brunei darussalam at 114.18ºE longtitude and 4.59ºN latitude with sarawak, malaysia. the town is bounded by the south china sea to the north, the belait river to the weat & south and the suburbs of kampong sungai pandan and kampong mumong to the east & south-east respectively
kuala belait was a small fishing village at the turn of the 20th century. the natives were belait malays who are mainly fishermen. with reference to local customs, there was a falling out between 2 groups of the inhabitants & one of them moved to the west bank of the mouth of the belait river to establish the current day kampong sungai teraban
the old historic administrative capital of the belait district used to be kuala balai, further up the belait river. however when oil was discovered in padang berawa (seria), a new administrative center for the district was established at the mouth of the belait river so as to be more accessible
seria (the black gold town) is the heart of oil & gas industries in brunei darussalam. there're 2 onshore oil & gas fields in the district - the largest seria oil field discovered in 1929, producing hydrocarbons even today & the smaller - rasau field close to the town of kuala belait. the tali field is an extension of the the seria field in the coastal waters off seria. the offshores lies the south-west ampa, fairley, fairley baram & egret fields
the natural gas from the fields are sent to the brunei liquefied natural gas plant (blng) in lumut where it's cooled & liquefied and exported mainly via tankers to japan & korea
in the eastern part of the district, liang is currently experiencing a major development with the establishment of spark (sungai liang industrial park), which is a 271 hectare site developed to be a world class petrochemical hub
the first major investment at spark is the USD450 million methanol plant developed by the brunei methanol company (bmc), a joint venture between brunei shell petroleum company sdn bhd (bsp) and two leading Japanese companies (mitsubishi chemical holdings corporation & itochu corporation). spark is one of the the brunei's economic development board (bedb) projects
the belait district has a population of around 88, 593 people
(2010 census)
longhouse in kuala belait for tourists
one million barrel monument
silver jubilee park... lets fish!
oil & gas discovery centre
anduki recreational park.. feel it!
housing scheme resettlement
fish market
it's fun!
credits: bedb/ bsp/ blng/ jungle-drum/ panagaclub/ wikipedia/ fickr/ numerous info
