Nippon Oil
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The Nippon Oil Corporation (新日本石油株式会社 Shin Nihon Sekiyu Kabushiki-gaisha?) (TYO: 5001), or NOC, is a Japanese petroleum company. Its businesses include the exploration, importation, and refining of crude oil; the manufacture and sale of petroleum products, including fuels and lubricants; and other energy-related activities. Its products are sold under the brand name ENEOS, which is also the name used for its service stations. It is the largest oil company in Japan, and in recent years it has been expanding its operations in other countries. It is currently a sponsor of the Honda Racing F1 Team. It also sponsors other motor sports teams, such as D1 Grand Prix competitors Team Orange and Ken Nomura's Blitz Skyline, as well as Team KNP of the NHRA Sports Compact Series.
The company was established 1888 as the "Nippon Oil" (日本石油 Nihon Sekiyu?). In 1999, the company merged with and absorbed the former "Mitsubishi Oil" (三菱石油 Mitsubishi Sekiyu?). The merged company was called "Nippon Mitsubishi Oil" (日石三菱 Nisseki Mitsubishi?) until 2002, when it adopted its present name.
The company has world wide locations including NOC U.S.A., Ltd. in Itasca, Illinois, and Nippon Oil Lubricants (America), LLC, in Childersburg, Alabama. ENEOS has brought their premium brand motor oil into the United States recently. The product line includes the extremely difficult to formulate 0W-50 viscosity oil.
NOC employs over 4,222 people with additional employees from oversea divisions, and operates the following refineries throughout Japan:
- Muroran Refinery (Nippon Petroleum Refining Co., Ltd.)
- Sendai Refinery (NPRC)
- Yokohama Refinery (NPRC)
- Negishi Refinery (NPRC)
- Mizushima Refinery (NPRC)
- Osaka Refinery (NPRC)
- Marifu Refinery (NPRC)
Nippon Oil Exploration U.S.A. Limited (NOEX USA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Oil Exploration Limited (President, Teruo Omori), which is an upstream arm of Nippon Oil Corporation (President, Shinji Nishio)and MCX Gulf of Mexico, LLC (MCX: Representative, Tetsuro Kuwabara), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation (President, Yorihiko Kojima), jointly acquired a 23.2% working interest (11.6% each) in the K2 Unit located in the deepwater outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico within the U.S. The interest was acquired by NOEX USA and MCX from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (Anadarko), an independent oil and gas company, through a joint bidding proposal.
Anadarko will remain the operator of the K2 unit, with a 41.8% working interest. Other partners are ENI Petroleum US LLC, ConocoPhillips Company , Union Oil of California, NOEX USA and MCX.
The K2 Unit, 1,300 meters in water depth, is located in 200 kilometers offshore of the State of Louisiana. Having recent successive discoveries of large reservoirs in the area surrounding the K2 Unit, the developments have lately attracted attention in the industry. The current gross production from the K2 Unit is approximately 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (Boed) and allocation to both NOEX USA and MCX is to be 9,300 Boed. In addition to long-term stable hydrocarbon production, further increases in oil and gas reserves are expected through development and exploration programs in the future.
Nippon Oil Group and Mitsubishi Corporation Group have been focusing their efforts on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where there are a number of oil and gas fields both in production and undeveloped with high potential. Each of the companies is committed to expand business activities in the U.S Gulf of Mexico which is one of each company strategic core areas. Both companies have the same focus in other areas which include Asia, Oceania and the North Sea.
[edit] Environmental Record
While developing the Rang Don Oil Field and Helang Gas Field NOEX, part of the Nippon Oil Corporation, conducted environmental impact assessments. These assessments helped them implement management plans based on the results of the assessments, specifically, how to reduce the impact of the fields on surrounding sea areas.[1]
In 2005 Nippon Oil and Ebaar Ballard announced they were going to start field testing a 1kW household proton-exchange membrane fuel cell system that uses coil oil as fuel. It was the world's first household test with the system. The system achieves a greater power-generation efficiency than normal heating. The system can operate in temperatures as low as -10 deg C. [2]
In 2007 Nippon Oil was the recipient of the Nippon Keidanren Chairman’s Prize in recognition of its achievements in a number of areas. They were the first in the Japanese petroleum industry to achieve a zero emission status at their refineries. They are also developing fuel cell systems as well as producing and selling sulfur-free fuel. The Rang Dong Oil Field in also one of the biggest CO2 reduction projects in the world. The project utilizes associated gas produced along with crude oil for additional energy production. [3]
