The , is a Japanese government

Independent Administrative Institution An Incorporated Administrative Agency (独立行政法人, ''Dokuritsu gyōsei hōjin'' or ''Dokugyo'' in abbreviation) is a type of legal corporation formulated by the Government of Japan under the Act on General Rules for Incorporated Administrat ...

which was created in 2004 when the former Japan National Oil Corporation merged with the former Metal Mining Agency of Japan. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation
(JOGMEC)

History

JOGMEC integrates corollary functions in one administrative entity. The former Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC) had been tasked with securing a stable supply of

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

for Japan's use. The former

Metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

Mining Agency of Japan (MMAJ) had been tasked with ensuring a stable supply of

nonferrous In metallurgy, non-ferrous metals are metals or alloys that do not contain iron (allotropes of iron, ferrite, and so on) in appreciable amounts. Generally more costly than ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals are used because of desirable proper ...

metal and

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

resources for Japan's use. Greater efficiencies were realized by combining two bureaucracies with similar missions. JOGMEC was established in 2004 pursuant to the 2002 Law Concerning the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation. In March 2013, JOGMEC becomes the first to successfully extract

methane hydrate Methane clathrate (CH4·5.75H2O) or (8CH4·46H2O), also called methane hydrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate, is a solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large amo ...

from

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

deposits.

Activities

JOGMEC's Geological Remote Satellite Sensing Centre in

Lobatse Lobatse is a town in south-eastern Botswana, 70 kilometres south of the capital Gaborone, situated in a valley running north towards Gaborone and close to the border with South Africa. Lobatse has a population of 29,772 as of 2022. The town is an ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

was created in partnership with the southern African nation's Department of Geological Survey in July 2008. The Japan-Botswana partnership will work together in developing the exploration of minerals through methods such as

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth ...

. JOGMEC carried out the world's first "large-scale"

deep sea mining Deep sea mining is a growing subfield of experimental seabed mining that involves the retrieval of minerals and deposits from the ocean floor found at depths of or greater. As of 2021, the majority of marine mining efforts are limited to shall ...

hydrothermal vent A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...

mineral deposits in August - September, 2017. This mining was carried out at the 'Izena hole/cauldron' vent field within the hydrothermally active back-arc basin known as the

Okinawa Trough The (also called , literally China-Ryukyu Border Trough ) is a seabed feature of the East China Sea. It is an active, initial back-arc rifting basin which has formed behind the Ryukyu arc-trench system in the West Pacific. It developed where th ...

which contains 15 confirmed vent fields according to th
InterRidge Vents Database
JOGMEC manages rare metal stockpiles in conjunction with private companies.National Research Council (US). (2008)
''Minerals, Critical Minerals, and the U.S. Economy,'' p. 186.
/ref>

Notes

References

* National Research Council (US). (2008)
''Minerals, Critical Minerals, and the U.S. Economy.''
Washington, D.C.:

National Academies Press The US National Academies Press (NAP) was created to publish the reports issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Research C ...

. ;

External links

JOGMEC website
*

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation Energy in Japan Independent Administrative Institutions of Japan

History

Activities

See also

Notes

References

External links