The , is a Japanese government

Independent Administrative Institution An , or Independent Administrative Institution, is a type of legal corporation formulated by the Government of Japan under the Act on General Rules for Incorporated Administrative Agencies (Act no. 103 of 1999, revised in 2014). The independent age ...

which was created in 2004 when the former Japan National Oil Corporation merged with the former Metal Mining Agency of Japan. Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security
(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) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

for Japan's use. The former

Metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

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 substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

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 (4CH4·23H2O), 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 am ...

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 ...

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

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 physical object, 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 inform ...

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

deep sea mining Deep sea mining is the extraction of minerals from the seabed of the deep sea. The main ores of commercial interest are polymetallic nodules, which are found at depths of primarily on the abyssal plain. The Clarion–Clipperton zone (CCZ) a ...

hydrothermal vent Hydrothermal vents are fissures 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 hot ...

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 the 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 (formerly known as the National Research Council (United States), National Research Council), the Na ...

. ;

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