INPEX begins exploration operations offshore Japan

Japan’s INPEX Corp. has started exploratory drilling operations offshore Shimane and Yamaguchi prefectures in Japan.

The project involves conducting exploratory drilling surveys about 130 km northwest of Shimane and about 150 km north of Yamaguchi in water depth of 240 m.

Drilling began May 5 and is expected to continue until August.

The drilling operations are near an exploration project conducted by the company in 2016 in which it found “a thin gas reservoir in a shallow zone as well as some gas indications in deeper zones,” the company said in October 2016 (OGJ Online, June 8, 2016).  At the time, the company also encountered “unexpected, strong gas indications suggesting the presence of a high-pressure gas column in the deepest zone.”