Pangkalan Brandan
![Elephant transporting timber in Pangkalan Brandan in the 1920s](/Images/godic/202502/01/COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Met_behulp_van_een_olifant_die_de_wals_trekt_wordt_een_weg_te_Pangkalan_Brandan_plat_gewalst_Langkat_Sumatra_TMnr_100066205816.jpg")
Pangkalan Brandan (or Pangkalanbrandan) (Pangkalanberandan) is a port town in North Sumatra province, Indonesia, forty miles north west of Medan, close to the boundary with Aceh. The area's population is estimated at around 21,000.
Oil deposits were discovered close to the village by a Dutch tobacco planter, Aeilko Jans Zijlker, in 1885. In June 1890, Zijlker, set up the "Royal Dutch Company for the Working of Petroleum Wells in the Dutch Indies" with its headquarters at Pangkalan Brandan and port facilities at nearby Pangkalan Susu, completed in 1898. The company was one of the two founder companies of Royal Dutch Shell. formed in February, 1907. Pangkalan Brandan was noted to be the first area of Indonesia which supported the development of other areas with its rich oil supply. There has been a proposal to use waste from the local palm-oil industry to generate electricity.