Inpex is Japan’s largest oil and gas exploration and production company. It has oil and gas projects across multiple continents, including the Ichthys LNG project in Australia and oilfields in Abu Dhabi. Group fiscal 2024 production was 231 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Inpex is a beneficiary of demand for energy. Behind coal, gas has for decades been the fastest-growing primary energy segment globally. Inpex’s LNG projects are favorably located on Asia's doorstep.
Bears
The global economy may cool, and demand for energy would likely follow suit, particularly if Chinese growth rates taper. Inpex's oil assets in the Middle East have sovereign risk.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Inpex was founded in 2008 through a merger with Teikoku Oil. The precursor to Inpex began life in 1966 as North Sumatra Offshore Petroleum Exploration and discovered the Attaka field in Indonesia in 1970 before acquiring the ADMA Block offshore the United Arab Emirates in 1973 and then discovering the Kashagan oilfield in Kazakhstan and Ichthys and Abadi gasfields in the Timor Sea in 2000. Teikoku Oil was founded in 1941 as a semigovernment entity and discovered Japan’s largest natural gas reserves in Minami-Nagaoka in 1979. Inpex is Japan’s largest hydrocarbon producer, with oil and gas projects across multiple continents. It produces around 230 million barrels of oil equivalent per year and has 6.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent in proven and probable reserves.