Rumbai

Rumbaiat present is a district ofPekanbaru,Riau Province,Sumatra,Indonesia.It was founded in the early 1950s as the Sumatra headquarters ofCaltexPacific Oil Company, now known as Chevron Pacific Indonesia, on the shores of theSiak River.In the early 1950s, Rumbai could only be reached from the outside world by river boat, from Pekanbaru or fromBengkalis.A road was built by Caltex to theMinasandDurioilfields and camps. Caltex staff (mostly American) traveled to Rumbai, Minas and Duri by plane from Jakarta or Singapore to Pekanbaru airport and then by boat across to Rumbai. The oil camp of Rumbai was a completely self-contained mostly expatriate community with offices, homes, school, hospital, water treatment, diesel generators, commissary, country club, swimming pool, and golf course.

In 1958 a floating bridge was built by Caltex over the Siak River. Also, by 1962 Caltex had built an oil port and company town at the fishing village ofDumaion the coast and connected Duri to Dumai by road.