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Balikpapan is a seaport city in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Located on the east coast of the island of Borneo, the city is the financial center of Kalimantan. With a population of 688,318 according to the 2020 census, and an official estimate of 757,418 as at mid 2023 (comprising 387,112 males and 370,206 females), Balikpapan is the second most populous city in East Kalimantan, after Samarinda.

Balikpapan is the largest city in Kalimantan by GDP, with a 2016 estimate of Rp 73.18 trillion. The city is served by Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan Airport. The Port of Semayang was the second busiest seaport in East Kalimantan, after that in Samarinda.

Balikpapan was originally a fishing village built by Buginese people in the 19th century. The first oil drilling began in Balikpapan on 10 February 1897, which was later set as the anniversary of the city. In 1899, the Dutch East Indies colonial administration granted a township status to Balikpapan. In 1907, Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM) made the city as its headquarters and imported skilled laborers, engineers, and managers from overseas. Subsequently, numerous multi-national companies came to Balikpapan to invest in the oil industry. This resulted in the economic boom of Balikpapan and attracted many migrants and expatriates.

During World War II, the Empire of Japan occupied the city in 1942, as part of the occupation of the Dutch East Indies, and it was bombed by the Allies in the first Balikpapan Battle in 1942 and second battle in 1945. The battles impacted critical infrastructure, including the oil refinery stations and seaport which were completely burned to the ground. Upon Indonesia's independence, BPM extended its activities in Balikpapan until 1965 when Pertamina, the Indonesian state-owned oil company, took control over the ownership of BPM and its oil exploration activities.

Suku asli Balikpapan adalah suku Balik yang saat ini telah menjadi minoritas. Suku Balik biasanya dianggap sebagai sub-suku Paser karena dianggap serumpun, sehingga terkadang disebut sebagai Paser Balik. Padahal sebenarnya, menurut ketua adat suku Balik, mereka berbeda dengan suku Paser. Seperti yang terjadi di kawasan Kalimantan lainnya, suku Banjar yang datang ke Balikpapan menyerap unsur-unsur suku lokal melalui perkawinan campur dengan suku Balik dan Suku Paser sehingga memunculkan komunitas Banjar-Balik. Secara garis besar, ada lima budaya dasar suku bangsa asal Kalimantan yang disebut Rumpun Kalimantan, empat di antaranya terdapat di Kalimantan Timur, khususnya Balikpapan yaitu: Banjar, Kutai, Dayak, Paser yang biasa disingkat Komunitas BAKUDAPA atau jika ditambah etnis Tidung menjadi BAKUDAPATI (akronim Banjar, Kutai, Dayak, Paser, Tidung) jika dihitung mencapai 31,39% populasi (sensus tahun 2000). Di antara keempat suku asal Kalimantan tersebut, duku Banjar merupakan yang terbanyak sejak masa kolonial.

Dalam sensus tahun 1930 suku Banjar berjumlah 7.389 jiwa (31,56%), suku Kutai/Melayu 52 jiwa, suku Dayak 32 jiwa di antara populasi Balikpapan. Selain empat suku di atas, banyak pula suku-suku asal dari pulau Sulawesi, Jawa, Sumatra, dan pulau lainnya sehingga pada awal pertumbuhan kota Balikpapan setidaknya terbentuk tiga kantung permukiman Banjar, Bugis, dan Jawa. Salah satu pakaian adat di Balikpapan, antara lain Baju Takwo.

Bahasa daerah yang sering digunakan adalah: Bahasa Paser Bahasa Kutai Bahasa Banjar Bahasa Bugis Bahasa Jawa Umumnya bahasa yang digunakan pada keseharian warga Balikpapan adalah bahasa Indonesia.

In Indonesian, balik can mean " come back" or "behind", while papan can mean "board" or "plank of wood". There are several popular stories and legends explaining the origin of Balikpapan:

The 10 pieces of board returned to Jenebora from the 1,000 pieces requested by the Sultan of Kutai as donations of building materials for the construction of the New Kutai Palace. The ten boards that were returned were referred to by the people of Kutai as Balikpapan Tu. So that the area along Balikpapan Bay, precisely in Jenebora is called Balikpapan. Balik people (the indigenous people of Balikpapan) are the descendants of grandfather and grandmother named Kayun Kuleng and Papan Ayun. So that the area along Balikpapan Bay by its descendants is called Kuleng-Papan or means Balikpapan (in Paser, Kuleng means Balik). Other legends link the origin of Balikpapan to a princess who was released by her father a king who did not want his daughter to fall into the hands of the enemy. The daughter who was still a toddler was tied up on several pieces of board in a state of lying. Because she was carried away and hit by waves, the board was reversed. When the board was stranded on the shore found by a fisherman and so it turned out that there was a daughter who was still bound. It is said that the princess was named Putri Petung who came from the Kingdom of Sand. So that the area where it was found was called Balikpapan.

From several older documents, the city was also spelt as Billipapan and Balikkappan.

The city has had several nicknames throughout its history such as the Oil City, City of Believers (Kota Beriman, which is an acronym of: BERsih (clean), Indah (magnificent), dan nyaMAN (comfortable)).

Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij oil refinery, 1910s

Before the oil boom of the early 1900s, Balikpapan was an isolated Bugis fishing village. Balikpapan's toponym (balik = "behind" and papan = "plank") is from a folk story in which a local king threw his newborn daughter into the sea to protect her from his enemies. The baby was tied beneath some planks that were discovered by a fisherman. An alternative story is that, at the time of the Kutai sultanate, Sultan Muhammad Idris sent 1000 planks to aid the Paser Kingdom to build a new palace. The planks were shipped from Kutai to Paser along the Borneo shoreline by roping all the planks together. 10 out of the 1000 planks that were originally shipped resurfaced in a place currently called Balikpapan.

On 10 February 1897, a small refinery company, Mathilda, began the first oil drilling. Building of roads, wharves, warehouses, offices, barracks, and bungalows started when the Dutch oil company Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM) arrived in the area.

On 24 January 1942, a Japanese invasion convoy arrived at Balikpapan and was attacked by four United States Navy destroyers that sank three Japanese transports. The Japanese army landed and met with no opposition by the Dutch troops, which had been ordered to evacuate after destroying the oil installations. In response to this, the Japanese massacred 78 Dutch POWs and civilians.

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) intelligence determined that half of all lubricating oils used by the Japanese military and 60 percent of all their aviation fuel came from refineries in Balikpapan, and it was therefore an extremely important target. The American 380th Bombardment Group under the command of the RAAF, including the famous B-24 Liberator Shady Lady, attacked the oil refineries in August 1943 from Darwin, Australia. Amazingly, there were no aircraft losses, despite the crash landing and subsequent repair of the Shady Lady.

In September and October 1944, the 5th and 13th Air Forces under the command of General George Kenney launched a series of five raids from Morotai and Noemfoor Islands. Kenney was a strong advocate for using the powerful B-29 Superfortress for this raid but was forced to use the B-24 Liberator instead. Unbeknownst to the Allied forces, the Japanese Air Force had conserved many of its dwindling numbers of fighters to protect the important oil refineries. The first two raids did not have fighter cover and suffered severe losses.

The 1945 Battle of Balikpapan concluded the Borneo campaign and Allied forces took control of Borneo island. Extensive wartime damage curtailed almost all oil production in the area until Royal Dutch Shell completed major repairs in 1950.

In 1958, the CIA attacked Balikpapan and stopped oil exports. The US was running a CIA covert mission to undermine President Sukarno's government by supporting right-wing rebels in Indonesia. The CIA, Taiwan and the Philippines had provided the Permesta rebels in North Sulawesi with an insurgent air force, the Angkatan Udara Revolusioner (AUREV). On 28 April 1958, a CIA pilot, William H. Beale, flying a B-26 Invader bomber aircraft that was painted black and showing no markings, dropped of four bombs on Balikpapan. The first damaged the runway at Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport, the second set the British oil tanker on fire and sank her and the third bounced off the British tanker without exploding. Beale's fourth bomb set on fire and sank the Indonesian Navy KRI Hang Tuah, killing 18 crew and wounding 28. Before attacking Hang Tuah, Beale also machine-gunned the oil pipes to Shell's wharf.

The CIA had orders to attack unarmed foreign merchant ships in order to drive foreign trade away from Indonesia and weaken its economy, with the intention of undermining Sukarno's government. The day before attacking Balikpapan, Beale had also damaged a Shell complex at Ambon, Maluku. His Balikpapan raid succeeded in persuading Shell to suspend tanker services from Balikpapan and withdraw shore-based wives and families to Singapore. However, on 18 May Indonesian naval and air forces off Ambon Island shot down an AUREV B-26 and captured its CIA pilot, Allen Pope. The US immediately withdrew support for Permesta, whose rebellion rapidly diminished thereafter.

Shell continued operating in the area until Indonesian state-owned Pertamina took it over in 1965. Lacking technology, skilled manpower, and capital to explore the petroleum region, Pertamina sublet petroleum concession contracts to multinational companies in the 1970s.

With the only oil refinery site in the region, Balikpapan emerged as a revitalized center of petroleum production. Pertamina opened its East Borneo headquarters in the city, followed by branch offices established by other international oil companies. Hundreds of laborers from Indonesia, along with skilled expatriates who served as managers and engineers, flocked into the city.

Topography of Balikpapan is generally hilly (85%), with only small areas of flat land (15%), mostly along the coast and surrounding the hilly areas. The hills are less than higher than the adjacent valleys. The altitude of Balikpapan ranges from 0 to above sea level. The city proper itself is located on eastern side of Bay of Balikpapan.

Most of the soil in Balikpapan contains yellow-reddish podsolic soil and alluvial and quartz sand, making it extremely prone to erosion.

Balikpapan features a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen: Af) as there is no real dry season in Balikpapan. The city sees an average of of rain per year. Balikpapan generally shows little variation in weather throughout the course of the year. The city does not have significantly wetter and drier periods of the year and average temperatures are nearly identical throughout the course of the year, averaging about throughout the year.