JAKARTA : THE CAPITAL CITY OF INDONESIA

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Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia and the largest citi of Indonesia. Jakarta has a greater population than any other city in Southeast Asia. Home to over 10 million people, Jakarta is always bustling, from the sound of the wheel of government turning to the sight of the economy churning. Skyscrapers, single story residential houses, modern apartment complexes, survivalists shanties - all coexist in this city.

Jakarta was formerly known as Sunda Kelapa (397-1527), Jayakarta (1527-1619), Batavia (1619-1942), and Djakarta (1942-1972). Located on the northwest coast of the Java Island, it has an area of 661.52 square kilometres (255.41 sq mi) and an official population of 8,389,443 (2000). Jakarta currently is the eleventh largest city in the world.

As the economic and political capital of Indonesia, Jakarta attracts many foreign as well as domestic immigrants. As a result, Jakarta has a decidedly cosmopolitan flavor and a diverse culture. Many of the immigrants are from the other parts of Java Island, bringing along a mixture of dialects of the Javanese and Sundanese languages, as well as their traditional foods and customs.

Jakarta is sometimes called "The Big Durian" by foreigners resident in the city. The durian is a tropical fruit with a distinctive odor and acquired taste. A bustling urban metropolis, Jakarta is known for its overcrowding, traffic congestion, and income disparity.

Jakarta has several performance centers, such as the Senayan center. Traditional music is often found at high-class hotels, including wayang and gamelan performances. As the nation's largest city and capital, Jakarta has lured much national and regional talent who hope to find a greater audience and more opportunities for success.

Jakarta Interesting Places

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There are a good number of recreation and sports activities available in Jakarta that will appeal to various members of the family. The American Embassy Recreation Association or AERA, usually called just the American Club, is very popular and centrally located in Kebayoran Baru. Membership is open to Americans and limited numbers of other nationalities. The facilities include an open-air restaurant and air-conditioned bar/restaurant, family recreation room, children's playroom, a very well equipped fitness center, large swimming pool and small pool and play area for young children, as well as basketball and tennis courts. AERA offers a wide variety of classes and activities and monthly celebrations of special events.

There are several water parks where children can enjoy swimming in various kinds of pools with water slides, etc. One is Pondok Indah Water Park adjacent to Pondok Indah Mall, and it's also worth going out to Lippo Cikarang in Bekasi, to spend a day at Water Boom, a beautifully landscaped park. Ancol Dreamland in North Jakarta also has the Gelanggang Renang "Water Park" featuring a large swimming pool with slides, wave pool, and children's pool.

To learn a little more about the cultures and ethnic groups across the Indonesian archipelago, it's well worth a visit to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah or the "Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park"; it's advisable to go on a weekday as Sundays in particular can be extremely crowded. The park features full size replicas of traditional houses from all the provinces of the Indonesian archipelago with displays of clothing, arts and handicrafts, numerous museums with different themes, an IMAX theater, bird aviary, orchid garden, a man-made lake with the islands of Indonesia, as well as a monorail and cable cars.

The Museum National is located on the side of Merdeka Square or Lapangan Merdeka and was built in 1862 at that time Dutch colonial administration realized about the great treasure of Indonesian cultural heritages and long history of Indonesia. The biggest surprised for the Western historians was the fact that historical record in Indonesia showing tremendous level of similarities with those in India.

At Taman Ismail Marzuki in Central Jakarta there is a planetarium with shows twice daily and a presentation in English can be arranged in advance. Taman Ismail Marzuki is Jakarta's showcase in cultural performances. As it is well known Java island including west Java which is called Sunda had strongly influenced by the Hindu tradition in the past. The Hindu tradition, especially initiated by the palaces, were various entertainments.

The Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta, not far from popular expatriate residential areas ,is home to over 250 species from Indonesia and throughout the world and is set in over 135 hectares of parklands. This is a relatively green and shady place where you can enjoy walking or cycling and a picnic lunch. Once again it's best to avoid Sundays and public holidays as its very crowded.
Centrally located Taman Ria Senayan is an amusement park with ferris wheel, roller coaster, various other rides and pedal boats on a small lake, plus numerous restaurants and an excellent clothing factory outlet.

Taman Impian Jaya Ancol or Ancol Dreamland is a huge oceanfront recreational facility in North Jakarta featuring the water park mentioned above, a marina for boating, a golf course, as well as the following theme parks and attractions:
- Dunia Fantasi "Fantasy World" - rides include roller coasters, bumper cars, flume ride, carousel, and boat ride.
- Gelanggang Samudra "Oceanarium" - variety animal show, birds and orangutan show, sealion show, dolphin show, as well as a boat ride through tropical gardens.
- Sea World - large tanks with all sorts of sea creatures, touching pool with starfish, anemones, and walk through underwater tunnel where you are surrounded by sharks, turtles, manta rays and other marine life.
- Pasar Seni "Art Market" - art objects and handicrafts from thoughout the country, cultural events and performances.

Many shopping centers and malls have food courts, restaurants, indoor recreation facilities such as rides and arcade games, as well as multiplex cinemas. Many of the latest movies are screened in Jakarta not too long after their international release, with English soundtracks and Indonesian subtitles.

THE GEOGRAPHIC OF INDONESIA

Area total: 1,919,440 km², land: 1,826,440 km², water: 93,000 km².
Land boundaries total: 2,830 km, border countries: Malaysia 1,782 km, Papua New Guinea 820 km, East Timor 228 km, Other nearby countries: India NW of Acheh, Australia, Singapore, Philippines, Brunei.
Coastline 54,716 km.
Maritime claims measured from claimed archipelagic baselines exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles (370 km)territorial sea: 12 nautical miles (22 km).

Indonesia is an archipelagic country extending 5,120 kilometers from east to west and 1,760 kilometers from north to south. It encompasses and estimated 17,508 islands, only 6,000 of which are inhabited. It comprises five main islands; Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi, and New Guinea; two major archipelagos (Nusa Tenggara and the Maluku Islands); and sixty smaller archipelagos. Three of the islands are shared with other nations; Borneo is shared with Malaysia and Brunei, Timor is shared with East Timor, and the newly divided provinces of Papua and West Papua share the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea. Indonesia's total land area is 1,919,317 square kilometers. Included in Indonesia's total territory is another 93,000 square kilometers of inlands seas. The additional surrounding sea areas bring Indonesia's generally recognized territory (land and sea) to about 5 million square kilometers. The government, however, also claims an exclusive economic zone, which brings the total to about 7.9 million square kilometers.

Geographers have conventionally grouped Sumatra, Java (and Madura), Kalimantan (in Borneo island), and Sulawesi in the Greater Sunda Islands. These islands, except for Sulawesi, lie on the Sunda Shelf—an extension of the Malay Peninsula and the Southeast Asian mainland. At Indonesia's eastern extremity is Papua, which takes up the western half of the world's second largest island--New Guinea--on the Sahul Shelf. Sea depths in the Sunda and Sahul shelves average 200 meters or less. Between these two shelves lie Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara and the Maluku Islands (or the Moluccas), which form a second island group where the surrounding seas in some places reach 4,500 meters in depth. The term Outer Islands is used inconsistently by various writers but it is usually taken to mean those islands other than Java and Madura.

Tectonically, this region--especially Java--is highly unstable, and although the volcanic ash has resulted in fertile soils, it makes agricultural conditions unpredictable in some areas. The country has numerous mountains and some 400 volcanoes, of which approximately 150 are active. Between 1972 and 1991 alone, twenty-nine volcanic eruptions were recorded, mostly on Java. The most violent volcanic eruptions in modern times occurred in Indonesia. In 1815 a volcano at Gunung Tambora on the north coast of Sumbawa, Nusa Tenggara Barat Province, claimed 92,000 lives and created "the year without a summer" in various parts of the world. In 1883 Krakatau in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra, erupted and some 36,000 West Javans died from the resulting tidal wave.

Mountains ranging between 3,000 and 3,800 meters above sea level can be found on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi, and Seram. The country's tallest mountains are located in the Jayawijaya Mountains and the Sudirman Mountains in Papua. The highest peak, Puncak Jaya, also known as Mount Carstenz, which reaches 4,884 meters, is located in the Sudirman Mountains.
Nusa Tenggara consists of two strings of islands stretching eastward from Bali toward Papua. The inner arc of Nusa Tenggara is a continuation of the chain of mountains and volcanoes extending from Sumatra through Java, Bali, and Flores, and trailing off in the Banda Islands. The outer arc of Nusa Tenggara is a geological extension of the chain of islands west of Sumatra that includes Nias, Mentawai, and Enggano. This chain resurfaces in Nusa Tenggara in the ruggedly mountainous islands of Sumba and Timor.

The Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) are geologically among the most complex of the Indonesian islands. They are located in the northeast sector of the archipelago, bounded by the Philippines to the north, Papua to the east, and Nusa Tenggara to the south. The largest of these islands include Halmahera, Seram and Buru, all of which rise steeply out of very deep seas. This abrupt relief pattern from sea to high mountains means that there are very few level coastal plains.
Geographers believe that the island of New Guinea, of which Papua is a part, may once have been part of the Australian continent. The breakup and tectonic action created both towering, snowcapped mountain peaks lining its central east-west spine and hot, humid alluvial plains along the coast of New Guinea. Papua's mountains range some 650 kilometers east to west, dividing the region between north and south.

The main variable of Indonesia's climate is not temperature or air pressure, but rainfall. The almost uniformly warm waters that make up 81 % of Indonesia's area ensure that temperatures on land remain fairly constant. Split by the equator, the archipelago is almost entirely tropical in climate, with the coastal plains averaging 28 °C, the inland and mountain areas averaging 26 °C, and the higher mountain regions, 23 °C. The area's relative humidity ranges between 70 and 90 %. Winds are moderate and generally predictable, with monsoons usually blowing in from the south and east in June through September and from the northwest in December through March. Typhoons and large scale storms pose little hazard to mariners in Indonesia waters; the major danger comes from swift currents in channels, such as the Lombok and Sape straits.

Located on the equator, the archipelago experiences relatively little change in the length of daylight hours from one season to the next; the difference between the longest day and the shortest day of the year is only forty-eight minutes. The archipelago stretches across three time zones: Western Indonesian Time--seven hours in advance of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)--includes Sumatra, Java, and eastern Kalimantan; Central Indonesian Time--eight hours head of GMT--includes western Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara, and Sulawesi; and Eastern Indonesian Time--nine hours ahead of GMT-- includes the Malukus and Papua. The boundary between the western and central time zones--established in 1988--is a line running north between Java and Bali through the center of Kalimantan. The border between central and eastern time zones runs north from the eastern tip of Timor to the eastern tip of Sulawesi.

For centuries, the geographical resources of the Indonesian archipelago have been exploited in ways that fall into consistent social and historical patterns. One cultural pattern consists of the formerly Indianized, rice-growing peasants in the valleys and plains of Sumatra, Java, and Bali; another cultural complex is composed of the largely Islamic coastal commercial sector; a third, more marginal sector consists of the upland forest farming communities which exist by means of subsistence swidden agriculture. To some degree, these patterns can be linked to the geographical resources themselves, with abundant shoreline, generally calm seas, and steady winds favoring the use of sailing vessels, and fertile valleys and plains--at least in the Greater Sunda Islands--permitting irrigated rice farming. The heavily forested, mountainous interior hinders overland communication by road or river, but fosters slash-and-burn agriculture.

Each of these patterns of ecological and economic adaptation experienced tremendous pressures during the 1970s and 1980s, with rising population density, soil erosion, river-bed siltation, and water pollution from agricultural pesticides and off-shore oil drilling. In the coastal commercial sector, for instance, the livelihood of fishing people and those engaged in allied activities--roughly 5.6 million people--began to be imperiled in the late 1970s by declining fish stocks brought about by the contamination of coastal waters. Fishermen in northern Java experienced marked declines in certain kinds of fish catches and by the mid-1980s saw the virtual disappearance of the terburuk fish in some areas. Effluent from fertilizer plants in Gresik in northern Java polluted ponds and killed milkfish fry and young shrimp. The pollution of the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Sumatra from oil leakage from the Japanese supertanker Showa Maru in January 1975 was a major environmental disaster for the fragile Sumatran coastline. The danger of supertanker accidents also increased in the heavily trafficked strait.

THE PETROLEUM GEOLOGY OF INDONESIA

Introduction
Indonesia is the largest archipleagic state in the world comprising five major islands and about 300 smaller island groups. Altogether there are 13,667 islands and islets of which about 6,000 inhabited. The archipelago is situated on a crossroad between two oceans, the Pacific and Indian oceans, and bridges two continents, the Asian and Australian. Indonesia has a total area of 9,8 million sq km, of which more than 7,9 million sq km under water. Physiographically, the islands of Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan are attached to the Sunda Shelf of the Asian continent. On this landmass the water depth does not exceed 200 meters. To the east, Irian Jaya and the Aru islands lie on the Sahul Shelf, which are parts of the Australian continent. Located between these two shelfal is the island grop of Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Maluku and Halmahera. These islands are encircled by deep seas which in many places reach 5,000 meters. About 60 Tertiary sedimentary basins, spread out from Sumatra in the west to Irian Jaya in the east, are identified in Indonesia. So far only 38 basins have been explored and drilled for petroleum and 14 of the are now producing oil and gas. Seventy three percent of these basins are located offshore, about one third of them in the deeper sea, with water depth exceeding 200 m.
The basic premise to explore the petroleum is the existence of sedimentary basin. Sedimentary basin is a depression on the earth surface the can accummulated the sedimentation material through time. Since most of the sediment transporting agent are water, the sedimentary basin usually the place where the water finally accummulate. It can be in the form of sea, lake, delta, or river.
Indonesia is a large country with various type of sedimentary basins. Most of the sedimentary basin in the western Indonesia are already explored since the end of 19th century. The recent years also saws the exploration on the frontier basins, especially in the eastern Indonesia. Unfortunately, the interest of the major oil companies lost their appetite to conduct explorationa activities in Indonesia probably due to the unfavorable fiscal regime. As a result, the oil and gas production is keep declining in Indonesia without any substantial reserve replacement.
The sediment which comprise of clay, sand, boulder or carbonate are being deposited in the sedimentary basin over a geologic time (million years). Due to the weight of the sedimentary deposit, the sedimentary basin experience subsidence to allow more sedimentation. This sedimentary process may accummulate sediment with cumulative thickness of several thousand meters.

Structural Geology
The tectonics processes in Indonesia formed major structures in Indonesia. The most prominent fault in the west of Indonesia is the Semangko Fault, a dextral strike-slip fault along Sumatra Island. The formation of this fault zone is related to the subduction zone in the west of Sumatra.
Palu-Koro fault is another major structural feature formed in the central part of Indonesia. This fault has similar orientation as the Semangko fault, extend from Koro in central part of Sulawesi, to Palu in the west coast of Sulawesi and extend across the Makassar strait to East Kalimantan.

Stratigraphy
The stratigraphy of the western part of Indonesia is relatively young, ranged from Paleogene to Quarternary. The eastern Indonesia has older stratigraphy compare to the western part. The stratigraphy range from Triassic to Tertiary. Devonian limestone were found in Telen River, East Kalimantan, as fragments within Paleogene clastic sediments. Ichthyosaur fossils were found in the mud volcanoes in Kai Island, indicated Mesozoic deposit in the subsurface.

Characteristics
About 60 Tertiary sedimentary basins, spread out from Sumatra in the west to Irian Jaya in the east, are identified in Indonesia. So far only 38 basins have been explored and drilled for petroleum and 14 of the are now producing oil and gas. Seventy three percent of these basins are located offshore, about one third of them in the deeper sea, with water depth exceeding 200 m.

Back-arc Basin
The most prolific sedimentary basin in Indonesia are belong to back-arc basin, whichis located on the 'back' of the volcanic-arc. Most of the back-arc basin located in the northeastern coast of Sumatra, northern Java, and continue to northern Lesser Island. Almost all of the back-arc basin are currently producing oil and gas, therefore categorized as proven petroleum province.

Fore-arc Basin
The fore-arc basin located to the 'front' of the volcanic arc, which is located along southwestern coast of Sumatra, southern coast of Java and Lesser Island. The fore-arc basin is mainly considered as a frontier basin and no commercial hydrocarbon found yet. However, there is strong indication of working petroleum system in the fore-arc basin, such as gas discoveries in the Nias area. Oil shows also reported to be found in offshore Bengkulu (Southern Sumatra). On the interesting note, the fore-arc basin in the southern part of Papua New Guinea already found commercial gas accummulation in the Pandorra Gas Field.