In 1978, Bintulu was a small town.  It has 220 shophouses, surrounded by several kampungs on one side and government offices on another side.  The estimated 14,000 persons mainly fished or framed to earn their living.  Others worked in the timber camps while those in town were traders and civil servants.

Bintulu then was not ready to accept an influx of people.  When the pioneer workers arrived in mid-1978, roads in Bintulu were short, mostly unpaved.  The few cars on the roads and the inhabitants knew one another.  The town's facilities were designed to meet the needs of the small population.

The first project to break ground at Tanjung Kidurong, a promontory located 20 KM to the north of Bintulu, was the RM 100million Bintulu Crude Oil Terminal or BCOT.  The terminal acts as a collection and export point for the crude oil produced from the wells off the Bintulu coast.  It has been upgraded to include gas sales facilities recently.

After the crude oil terminal project came the gas project.  On June 14, 1978, a joint-venture company was formed to undertake Malaysia's biggest investment in a single industrial project in the form of the liquefied natural gas plant.  To facilitate the export of LNG to buyers in Japan, a port was required.  Shortly, the more than half a billion Ringgit Bintulu Deepwater Port was built.  At the peak of the construction of these mammoth projects, there were 7,000 Korean workers in Bintulu.  A mini-Korea was created.

The abundant supply of natural gas also created investment in related projects.  The RM 800 billion Asean Bintulu Fertiliser Sdn. Bhd.  was established to undertake the ammonia and urea production in Bintulu.

Bintulu was shocked by the influx of people.  It was not prepared.  The town's facilities were unable to cater for the sudden increase in demand.

However, the initial problems were shortlived.  The BDA and other government agencies rapidly reinforeced amenities.  By 1983, when the firt big projects like the LNG Plant and the Bintulu Deepwater Port were completed, the factilites were upgraded.  In fact, some facilities like water supply, electicity supply and telephone lines were in excess capacities now.  In addition, the roads around Bintulu have also been upgraded.  New residential areas were created to accommodate the rush fromother parts of Sarawak, Malaysia and from some foreign contries.