The First Battle of Balikpapan took place on 23–24 January 1942, off the major oil producing town and port of Balikpapan, on Borneo, in the Netherlands East Indies. After capturing the destroyed oilfield at Tarakan from the Allies in the Battle of Tarakan, the Japanese force—the Sakaguchi Detachment (named for its commander, Major General Shizuo Sakaguchi)-moved on to Balikpapan with the hope that the oilfields there had not been destroyed.