Balikpapan

For decades Balikpapan was simply Indonesia's oil town, a prosperous outpost on the Makassar Strait built on the offshore fields that separate Borneo from Sulawesi. That is no longer the whole story. Since 2022 the new national capital, IKN Nusantara, has risen some 70 kilometres inland, and Balikpapan is now its principal gateway, the airport, seaport and logistics hub that supplies it. A toll road links the airport to IKN in about an hour, and civil servants, contractors and property money are arriving in numbers.

Oil still anchors the economy, but the industry has changed hands. The foreign majors that once dominated, Chevron and Total among them, have handed their upstream blocks to state-owned Pertamina; Italy's Eni is now the main foreign operator. Pertamina's Balikpapan refinery, one of the country's oldest, completed a US$7.4 billion upgrade in January 2026, lifting capacity to 360,000 barrels a day. Service firms such as SLB and Halliburton keep offices here, and the city still draws foreign residents on assignment.

Residents and environment

Balikpapan is dominated by no single ethnic group. In its fishing days it was mainly Bugis, from southern Sulawesi; migrants have since come from across the archipelago, Javanese, Bataks, Makassarese, Manadonese and Balinese among them. The capital project and its foreign companies bring a steady flow of foreign residents, some transient, some settled for good.

Oil revenue and competent management have kept the city clean, a repeat Adipura winner, green, hilly and set on the sea. The old claim that it has no traffic problem is wearing thin as construction and migration bite, but it remains pleasant to walk: the Pertamina housing estate has fine sea views, and beaches such as Dapur Bunda catch good sunsets. For the wider area and settling in, see Regions and Practicalities.

Contributor: nicklemeister

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