Sorong, Southwest Papua, Western New Guinea, Indonesia

🇮🇩 Sorong is the largest city of the Indonesian province of Southwest Papua. The city is located on the western tip of the island of New Guinea with its only land borders being with Sorong Regency. It is the gateway to Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands, species rich coral reef islands in an area considered the heart of the world's coral reef biodiversity. It also is the logistics hub for Indonesia's thriving eastern oil and gas frontier. Sorong has experienced exponential growth since 2010, and further growth is anticipated as Sorong becomes linked by road to other frontier towns in Papua's Bird's Head Peninsula. It is served by Domine Eduard Osok Airport.

Etymology The origin of Sorong's name comes from the word Soren, which means "deep and wavy ocean" in the Biak language. The name was first used by the Biak-Numfor people who sailed to different islands before they finally decided to settle down in Raja Ampat Islands. When the Biak-Numfor people came to the place called "Daratan Maladum", they decided to call it Soren. After centuries of contact with Chinese merchants, European missionaries, and people from Maluku and Sangihe-Talaud, the name underwent further change into Sorong.

History Dutch influence over the region was minimal until the 20th century, when a colonial post was established on Doom Island in 1906, serving as the Dutch administrative centre of the region. In the 1930s, the Dutch oil company Nederlandsch Nieuw Guinee Petroleum Maatschappij (NNGPM) had discovered oil off the coast of Sorong. The newly established oil fields led to the expansion of Dutch colonial influence in Western New Guinea, and had made Sorong into a valuable military target. During World War II, Sorong was occupied by the Empire of Japan in 1942, and would serve as the centre of operations for Japanese forces during the Western New Guinea campaign. The Battle of Sansapor in June 1944 would effectively end Japanese control over the Bird's Head Peninsula, and by August 1944 any remaining Japanese presence in the region was removed by the US 6th Division. After the Indonesian War of Independence, the colonial administration would attempt to expand oil production with the construction of the 58 kilometer Klamono-Sorong pipeline. However, oil production declined after the war, and by 1961 oil production had dropped another 33%. This decline in production contributed to the demise of the Dutch colonial administration, as the Dutch administration over the territory could no longer be defended as economically viable. Under Indonesian administration, oil production would return to pre-war levels, and by 1967 production had more than trebled from 1961 levels. Today, the city still remains as one of the major oil and gas producers of Indonesian New Guinea.

In 1972, Sorong was reformed into an autonomous city, and then reformed into an administrative city in 1996. Administrative cities were abolished in 1999, granting Sorong full city status, and separating Sorong City from the Sorong Regency.

Administrative districts At the 2010 Census, the city comprised six districts (distrik), but the number has subsequently been increased to ten by the splitting of existing districts.

Container port A container port is to be built in Sorong with an annual container-handling capacity of 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and cost Rp.800 billion (US$93.6 million). Construction began in early 2012 and was expected to be complete in mid-2013, but was delayed.