The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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Klamono (131.473E
1.132S) was the location of an oil
field in the Vogelkop Peninsula of western New Guinea. Though discovered
prior to war breaking out, it was still largely undeveloped. Estimates
at the time were that the oil reservoir was one of the largest in the Netherlands East Indies
and would produce one of the lightest crude oil known, rich in the valuable
volatile fractions such as gasoline.
The Allies
made plans to seize and develop the field in 1944, going as far as
organizing the 5000-man Engineer
Petroleum Production Depot in California. It was estimated that, with
proper development, the field could produce as much as 25,000 barrels
of crude oil per day. However, these plans were dropped when
in became clear that it would require fewer resources to continue
shipping oil from California to the Southwest
Pacific than to develop the field.
References
Smith (1953; accessed 2012-4-14)
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