Originally published 2007, part of a series I did for a biography website. Can’t even remember who now, but it’s long gone.
His full title is “Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, 29th Sultan of Brunei”, and he is ranked among the wealthiest billionaires in the world, with a net worth of $20 billion USD. He is the total controller of the finances of the Nation-State of Brunei. His holdings are vast, including the assets of Brunei Shell Petroleum. Basically every drop of petroleum pumped out of the ground or refined within the border of Brunei belongs to him.
The Sultan was born July 15, 1946, in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, to Omar Ali Saifuddien III, the 28th Sultan of Brunei, making Hassanal the 29th.
Brunei is a tiny country. If you take the largest land mass of Indonesia (an island archipelago in the sea between China and Australia) which is the island of Borneo, and split it, the top half of that is the nation of Malaysia. If Malaysia were a piece of cheese and a mouse took a single nibble out of it, that’s Brunei, on the north coast facing China. It has an area of 2,226 square miles or 5,765 square kilometers, which makes it smaller than the US state of Delaware. The population is an estimated 417,200, less than the population of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. Brunei Darussalam gained its international independence from the United Kingdom in 1984.
Brunei is an absolute monarchy, and the Sultanate maintains full executive authority as both head of state and head of government. The country technically operates under martial law since the 1960s. While the Sultan is advised by an appointed legislative council and there has been some attempt at allowing elections and having an appointed parliament, the government is still basically whatever the Sultan says. Hassanal Bolkiah inherits the Sultan title in a dynasty that has stood since the 15th century with Muhammad Shah, the first Sultan of Brunai, of the years 1405-1415.
Crude oil and natural gas production account for nearly half of Brunei’s Gross Domestic Product, which was last tracked as $6.84 billion in 2003. Brunei is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia, averaging about 180,000 barrels per day. It is also the fourth-largest exporter of liquid natural gas in the Asia-Pacific region. The labor division of Brunei works out to about 48% government and services, 42% production of oil and gas and related services, and 10% agriculture and fishing. So essentially, as the price of oil goes, so goes the fortunes of Brunei.
The chief oil and gas production company in Brunei is Brunei Shell Petroleum, operated in a joint venture of equal shares between the Brunei Government and Shell oil. It also operates the country’s only refinery, with a distillation capacity of 10,000 barrels per day. Brunei’s natural gas is produced by the Brunei Liquefied Natural Gas plant, most of the output of which is sold to Japan.
The government of Brunei is so closely tied to the fortunes of the fossil fuels market that the citizens jokingly refer to their economic state as “Shellfare”, indicating that they are provided with welfare from the sale of oil. Citizens of Brunei pay neither personal nor corporate taxes, and get free education and medical services as well as subsidized food and housing. The country is generally considered wealthy and though it lacks a great deal of infrastructure, its citizens enjoy a relatively high standard of living.
As for the Sultan himself, he seems to be fun to live under. He built Jerudong Park, an amusement park larger than Hong Kong Disneyland, out of his own pocket. Citizens can attend for free. The Sultan himself collects cars – we’re talking anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 cars, a collection totaling $4 billion USD. The car collection includes 500 Rolls-Royces, giving it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, and other notable cars in his collection include a Porsche Carrera GT, a Lamborghini Diablo Jota, a Porsche 959, a Bugatti EB110, a Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, a Maybach 62, a Jaguar XJR-15 and six Dauer 962’s.
Hassanal Bolkiah, 29th Sultan of Brunei, lives today with his three wives and twelve children at his own palace, the Istana Nurul Iman, which holds the world’s record for the largest palace at 200,000 square meters of luxuriously furnished living space. If you’re in the neighborhood, do drop by for a visit, and be sure to ask him if he can give you a ride.
