The E&P industry has contributed to people’s lives and the development of the global economy for more than a century. In recent years, the E&P industry’s business environment has changed significantly due to climate change issues. E&P companies are now expected to contribute to the realization of a net zero carbon society. The decarbonization movement is also affecting the supply and demand of crude oil and natural gas. The IEA’s sustainable development scenario implies there may soon be a crude oil supply glut. Oil companies are undoubtedly facing significant challenges. Many E&P companies have announced new strategies including investing in new businesses such as hydrogen and renewable energy. Some companies have even transformed their entire business models from fossil fuels to renewables. On the other hand, it is unlikely that decarbonization efforts will proceed smoothly in developing countries where demand for fossil fuels may increase to sustain economic development year by year. To address the conflict between decarbonization and supporting economic development especially in Asian developing countries, the E&P industry should work to fulfill its two social responsibilities of providing a stable supply of energy and responding to climate change by strengthening upstream business operations and making them cleaner. I believe that we must see the reality, understand the needs of society, and play a central role in realizing those needs. In particular, I believe that it is up to you engineers to lead the transition to a net zero carbon society and contribute to people’s lives for the next 100 years.

Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd.（JAPEX）is developing renewable energy and new technologies utilizing its E&P（Exploration and Production）experience to contribute to the goal of zero emissions and carbon-neutral society by 2050. We are also working on creating new environmentally friendly businesses in areas around the existing business domains. JAPEX’s mission is to provide a stable supply of energy, and to complement its longstanding core business of E&P and supply of oil and natural gas. On top of this, it is working to transform its business structure to grow as a "comprehensive energy company" in light of worldwide calls for a decarbonized society. To date, JAPEX has participated in demonstration tests aimed at the practical application of carbon dioxide（CO₂）capture and storage technologies, strengthened its renewable energy business organization. On 13th May 2021, JAPEX announced that it has formulated "JAPEX2050: Toward a Carbon-Neutral Society"（hereinafter "JAPEX2050"）, which sets forth JAPEX’s direction as a comprehensive energy company in light of the government’s "Realizing Carbon-Neutral Society in 2050" initiative. JAPEX2050 provides a fresh outline of the responsibilities and challenges that JAPEX must take on in order to achieve the goal of net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050 worldwide, and presents a clearer direction for JAPEX’s future actions and business development. By steadily implementing JAPEX2050, JAPEX will pursue new possibilities for the stable supply of energy in the carbon-neutral society, while aiming for further growth as a comprehensive energy company.

With an increasing demand for de-carbonization in worldwide, the Japanese government has announced its goal towards carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve this goal, an introduction of clean energy such as hydrogen and ammonia which emits no CO₂ when combusted is considered. The realization of a carbon neutral society should be achieved through a gradual transition to carbon neutral energy sources, while balancing the stable supply of energy at a reasonable cost. In course of this transition, fossil fuels still hold an important role. By acknowledging fossil fuels as a vehicle to carry hydrogen, fossil fuels can become a source to provide hydrogen/ammonia at a low cost, when combined with technologies that reduce CO₂ emission, for instance carbon capture and storage（CCS）. JOGMEC, with its expertise in subsurface technologies through the long-term involvement in the oil and gas exploration/production and with diverse relationships with resource producing countries, has its role and responsibility to respond to climate change and ensure the stable supply of energy through the necessary activities including the development of carbon reduced energy. This paper introduces the activities of JOGMEC toward realization of a carbon neutral society.

In 2018, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change（IPCC）made a special report that the rise of global average temperature after the Pre-Industrial Revolution must be less than or equal to 1.5 °C to suppress the effects of global warming. Based on this report, achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 has become a common world goal. The strategy of the Japanese government and the roadmap drawn by the International Energy Agency（IEA）declares that it is essential to break away from fossil fuels and maximize the introduction of renewable energy in the energy supply. They force the Exploration & Production（E&P）sector to transform its business, and the E&P sector will enter a tough time.

In this article, the image of human resources required for the E&P sector in the era of change by carbon neutrality is proposed. In addition, the survey on the current state of oil development education of Hokkaido University, Akita University, Tohoku University, Waseda University, The University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and Kyushu University is conducted by checking the educational goals, the number of faculty members, and the subjects relating the oil development posted on the Web pages of each university. The result reveals that the educational goals of each university are fit for the image of proposed human resources. However, comparing to the state of the University of Texas and Stanford University, the number of faculty members relating to oil development is few, and the provided subjects are not enough for the education for oil development. This result suggests the necessity of a university-jointed education program for oil development under carbon neutrality. Finally, Oil Development Summer School and Oil Development Winter School are introduced as students’activities. The result of the questionnaire to students relating the carbon neutrality is also reported to show the students’awareness.

The Onnagawa shale is a middle Miocene deposit that extends along the Akita coastal area. This formation contains organic carbon enriched siliceous mudstones deposited in the basins during the early stages of the Japanese sea opening. Some researchers in petroleum geochemistry have demonstrated that these organically enriched rocks possess attributes common to oil source rocks. JOGMEC has previously perfomed shale oil reservoir characterization of the Onnagawa shale, pilot hydraulic fracturing tests, and coring through the Onngawa shales sequence. The main goal of this paper is to use methods to estimate rock properties characterized by porosity and permeability to develop an understanding of fraccability based on lithofacies and mineral composition and their distribution in the Onnagawa Formation.

Core sample from the Onnagawa shale were drilled at the Unosaki coast in the Oga peninsula. Rock property, mineral composition, and lithofacies were analyzed by CMS-300, QEMSCAN, and FIB-SEM in JOGMEC-TRC. The study results identify successes or fail parts of hydraulic fracturing depending on lithofacies and mineral compositions and indicate that 1）the lihofacies of the Onnagawa shale are dark gray to light gray colored massive, bedded, and laminated. 2）the porosity and permeability values in the light gray colored facies are relatively higher than dark gray colored facies. 3）the QEMSCAN shows the Onnagawa Formation is characterized by layered carbonate concretions with dolomite and calcite and consists chiefly of quartz with clay minerals and framboidal pyrite. 4）hydraulic fracturing tests succeeded in dolomite and calcite composed carbonate concretion layers.

Mudstone is supposed to behave as suitable caprock due to its low permeability, and is also known to show semipermeable membrane characteristics. Therefore, better understandings on the coupled processes among groundwater flow, solute transport, and deformation of mudstone are highly warranted. In this study, laboratory-scale experiment was conducted by using a mudstone sample collected from Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture. The sample which was saturated with low NaCl concentration solution was in contact with higher NaCl concentration solution, and circumferential strains were measured by fiber-optic strain sensor. About 150 με of contractional strain was observed by applying ca. 15g/L of concentration difference. Type curves to explain transient strain behavior were developed by using the numerical model which can handle coupled chemical osmotic and poroelastic behaviors, and it was found that, except for the latter stage of the experiment, strain behaviors were quite well fit with the type curves. It was also possible to estimate some of the physical properties of the sample from the fitting result.

The Dewa Bank Chain located in the Eastern Japan Sea Mobile Belt in the offshore Akita, consisting of several banks namely Oga Mukaise Bank, Shinguri Bank, and Tobishima Bank, is considered to be formed since 200 to 300 m.y. before by tectonic inversion reactivating some early Miocene normal faults relating to Japan Sea rifting. The compressional stress causing inversion trends E-W, whereas the extensional stress in the early Miocene relating rifting of Japan Sea had trended NNE-SSW direction. Such overprint of deformations by different tectonic stress fields causes formation of complex and diverse geologic structures, and the relationship between new and old structures are remained unclear.

Recently, the author carried out seismic stratigraphic analysis and structural interpretation of 3D seismic data acquired in 2014 by METI（Ministr y of Economy, Trade and Industry）at offshore Akita and Yamagata prefectures. As a result of the study, Shingri Bank was revealed to be formed at least in the two stages, early inversion stage and late inversion stage, and this mechanism is found to be explained by the difference of old and new stress directions. In the early inversion stage, some NNE-SSW trending and WNW dipping normal faults formed syn-rift stage in the early Miocene has been reactivated within the compressed zone. The reactivated reverse faults and uplifting hanging wall blocks have been arranged N-S trended en echelon. Most of those reverse faults became inactive before the late inversion stage. In the late inversion stage, the reverse faults and uplifting blocks have been squeezed within the compressed zone, and converged into single, N-S trending reverse fault and uplifting block. Such deformation process can be explained by a newly proposed multistage inversion tectonics model under oblique stress conditions.