Seria () is a town in Belait District, Brunei, about west from the country's capital Bandar Seri Begawan. The total population was 3,625 in 2016. It was where oil was first struck in Brunei in 1929 and has since become a centre for the country's oil and gas industry. Name The name Seria is an acronym for the South East Reserved Industrial Area. In the past, Seria used to be known as , the local name which translates as 'Wild Pigeon's Field', and referred to the area between the Bera and Seria rivers. However, the name has become forgotten today. Geography Seria is located within a mangrove swamp and surrounded by an oil field. The town has a narrow coast with the South China Sea. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA). As well as open sea, it contains tidal mudflats and sandflats, mangroves and beach forest which support populations of various birds, including Bornean crestless firebacks, grey imperial pigeons, short-toed coucals, lesser adjutants, Chinese egrets, Wallace's hawk-eagles, Malay blue-banded kingfishers, and straw-headed bulbuls. History The first oil field was discovered by the British Malayan Petroleum Company (BMPC) in 1929, followed by the completion of the first commercial oil well later that same year in Wild Pigeon's Field on the west bank of the Seria River. Production of oil has already began by 1931, while the first export began in 1932. During World War II, Seria was one of the first places in Borneo invaded by the Imperial Japanese Army. The Japanese Kawaguchi Detachment came ashore on 16 December 1941, nine days after the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Upon the invasion, the oil field was destroyed by the British forces to prevent being captured by the Japanese. On 28 April 1945, Seria was attacked by the United States Navy which targeted places in the Asia-Pacific occupied by the Japanese forces. The town was liberated by the Australian forces on 29 June 1945; by the time they arrived in Seria, the oil field was heavily burned and only in November in that year that the production was restored. By 1946, the original town had been completely destroyed. On 13 January 1950, two RAF PR Mk.34 de Havilland DH.98 Mosquitoes (RG254 and PF624) collided and crashed off Seria. The bodies of the crew were buried in Kuala Belait Cemetery. During the 1962 Brunei revolt, rebels of