Miri

Miri /ˈmɪriː/ (Jawi: .mw-parser-output .script-arabic{font-family:"Scheherazade New","SF Arabic",Scheherazade,Lateef,Amiri,"Noto Naskh Arabic","Droid Arabic Naskh","Microsoft Uighur","Noto Sans Arabic","Sakkal Majalla","Harmattan","Arabic Typesetting","Arabic Transparent","Times New Roman",Arial,Calibri,"Microsoft Sans Serif","Segoe UI",serif,sans-serif;font-weight:normal}ميري‎; Chinese: 美里; pinyin: Méilǐ) is a coastal city in north-eastern Sarawak, Malaysia, located near the border of Brunei, on the island of Borneo. The city covers an area of 997.43 square kilometres (385.11 sq mi),[2] located 798 kilometres (496 mi) north-east of Kuching[6] and 329 kilometres (204 mi) south-west of Kota Kinabalu.[7] Miri is the second-largest city in Sarawak,[8] with a population of 356,900 as of 2020.[5] The city is also the capital of Miri District, Miri Division. Before Miri was founded, Marudi was the administrative centre of the northern region of Sarawak. Miri was founded in 1910 when the first oil well was drilled by Royal Dutch Shell. The discovery of an oil field in Miri has led to rapid development of Miri town. Miri became the administrative centre of the northern region of Sarawak by 1929. During World War II, the Miri oil fields were destroyed by the Brooke government to sabotage Japanese operations in Southeast Asia but to no avail; Miri town was the first landing point of Japanese troops in Borneo. The subsequent Japanese occupation led Miri to become a target of Allied air raids which caused the destruction of oil refinery facilities in Miri. The petroleum industry continued to be a major player in the city's economy after the war. Oil exploration has moved offshore since the 1950s, but subsequently new inland oil fields were found in 1989 and 2011. In 1974, the formation of Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas led to co-operation between Petronas and Shell on oil exploration in the Miri region. In 2005, Miri became the 10th city in Malaysia to be granted official city status, the first non-state-capital city to be bestowed such status.