INPEX Corporation: Японская нефтегазовая компания

Japanese oil company
the petroleum company

INPEX Corporation is a Japanese oil company established in February 1966 as North Sumatra Offshore Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. INPEX is the largest oil and gas exploration and production company in Japan, with global exploration, development and production projects in 20 countries. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, INPEX was ranked as the 597th largest public company in the world.

INPEX was listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on November 17, 2004 when the indebted Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC), now part of the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation which owned a 53.96% stake in INPEX, put up for sale 343,725 shares (17.9 percent of INPEX's 1.92 million outstanding shares). At the time, 18.9 percent of the company was owned by METI. On October 1, 2008, the merger was completed with Inpex Corporation being formed from INPEX Holdings, INPEX, and Teikoku Oil, and the headquarters were moved to Akasaka, Tokyo. The Mahakam Bloc, the original INPEX's first site, was nationalized by the Government of Indonesia in 2018, and is currently operated by Pertamina.

In the fiscal year 2011 the company had 2,146 staff, with 784 temporary employees. As at 31 December 2019, INPEX had 3,117 employees on a consolidated basis.

The main focus of the company's operations in Japan is the Minami Nagaoka Gas Field in Niigata Prefecture. The original project consisted of an offshore Central Processing Facilities (CPF), supplying two phase gas to an onshore facility on the Maret Islands. The facilities on the Maret Islands were to include gas receiving, LNG process plant (2 x 3.8Mtpa trains), product storage and export facilities. The Maret Islands are located approximately 200 km south east of the Ichthys Field, which is approx. 440 km north of Broome and 800 km south west of Darwin. The project for the LNG plant to be located on the isolated Maret Islands was scrapped with the LNG Plant now to be built at Bladin Point industrial site which is located on the Middle Arm Peninsula in Darwin, Northern Territory, with a pipeline from the lchthys Field to the LNG Plant, after regulatory delays in Western Australia. The Ichthys Project's Front End Engineering Design (FEED) was completed in April 2011. Final Investment Decision (FID) was announced on 13 January 2012. In January 2012 INPEX said the 8.4 million tonne per annum (mtpa) project near Darwin will cost about $34 billion, some 60 per cent more than INPEX's original estimate of $20 billion. INPEX said it and French energy company Total, its joint venture partner, had given the final approval to the project. Total had expressed interest in increasing its stake in the project from 24% to 30%, and negotiations between the two companies were underway. The project was estimated to contribute $3.5 billion into the Australian economy each year, and require around 2,700 workers during peak construction, and another 300 jobs ongoing once it is operational. The EPC early works phase, such as commencement of site development, infrastructure works and accommodation village and dredging began in 2012. LNG Production in the magnitude of app. 8.4mtpa is projected to be online by fourth quarter of 2016. The first shipment from the Ichthys LNG plant was made in October 2018.

In November 2008, INPEX acquired a 100 per cent participating interest in the Masela Block in Indonesia. Gas was discovered in 2000 when the Abadi 1 exploratory well was drilled. This marked the first discovery of crude oil and natural gas in the Arafura Sea in Tanimbar, Mollucas, Indonesia. A development plan was submitted to the Indonesian government and subsequently approved. Preparatory measures for Front End Engineering Design, set to begin in the first half of 2012, are currently in process. In 2017 the company is ready to start the Pre FEED phase and hold a joint workshop with SKK Migas.

INPEX is a minority shareholder in the Kashagan Field in Kazakhstan and the Azeri Chirag Guneshli project, offshore Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea.