It is a great honor for me to serve you as the 31st president of The Japanese Association for Petroleum Technology which boasts a history of nearly 80 years. Assuming its accompanying huge responsibility in June 2010, I pledge to make my utmost efforts to ensure that this association will be managed to reflect the needs of our members.

The Japanese Association for Petroleum Technology was established in 1933 with a purpose to contribute to the technological progress related to the exploitation of oil and gas as well as providing a forum to foster exchange of information among its members. The association’s membership has expanded steadily from 178 in its inception to above 1800 today and includes those involved in exploration, drilling, development, and production in oil and gas related industries, universities and national institutes in Japan.

Oil and gas account for 55% of the current global primary energy consumption and according to the IEA reference case in 2030, the energy consumption will increase by 40% and still oil and gas will take up the majority. Looking into the recent environment of the E&P industry which will assume the responsibility on the supply side, the crude oil price peaked at $140s WTI in mid-2008 and then fell sharply to stay and fluctuate between $60~90 since mid-2009.

The expectation that the current price range will be upheld has inspired energetic E&P investment among oil companies in Japan and abroad, putting once unfeasible projects such as smaller fields, deep sea and ultra-heavy crude oil on our business agenda.

E&P activities of gas and its market have been significantly
affected by technological innovation. Since 2007, cost reduction made possible by gas-related technological innovation resulted in the rapid rise of unconventional production, especially in the USA onshore, such as Coalbed Methane(CBM) and shale gas.

And now IOCs, majors in particular, have been differentiating themselves from competitors by further solidifying their technical expertise in order to secure their interests while independents also seek access to oil and gas fields where their technical strength and advantage may be put into practice.

In addition, NOCs in Asia and other regions, armed with technical expertise and cost competitiveness acquired through years of domestic business endeavors, have been aggressively expanding their business beyond borders in order to accommodate ever-increasing domestic energy demand. All these factors have contributed to make the current competition for E&P interests
all the more fierce.

In order for us to stay alive and gain a final victory, we must continue to tackle the principal proposition such as improvement of E&P success rate and recovery rate as well as cost reduction. In other words, perpetual improvement of our technology is inevitable. Furthermore development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources, environmental protection through zero-flare and CCS will be another important proposition for us. It is only natural that Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) should be given particular emphasis when we recall the explosion and sinking of the deepwater drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Marked progress in modern technology has given rise to specialization and diversification, making it all the more difficult for an individual to grasp the full scope of a subject matter. But at the same time, various technology elements with potential cross-functional application are being created. As much as we should perfect our expertise in the technology elements of our respective discipline when we grapple with a technological proposition, multi-disciplinary approach and intelligence networking will gain more importance.

Our association consists of members with different background and expertise and of different generations, which makes a multi-disciplinary approach and intelligence networking possible. In order to further enhance this, the Resources Economy Committee was established and interchange among the technical committees as well as exchange with related academic societies in Japan and abroad have been realized in addition to a major renewal of our Web site. I hope you will make the most of them. We will welcome any feedbacks and suggestions from our esteemed members for further improvement of our association.

To maintain and improve advanced technology, educating top-rate talent is essential. Technology is supported by men and women. To acquire young technical talent is an important issue in Japan and elsewhere. As part of tackling the problem, our association organizes special tours for undergraduate and graduate students in Fall and Winter Meetings in addition to traditional tours at each Annual Meeting & Convention where we also award a certificate of commendation for excellent presentations. We also hold conferences at universities. Possible counter measures will be reviewed to encourage young talent to join our wonderful and exciting world of exploration and production technology.

JAPT is an assembly on a voluntary basis. How you make good use of it as well as how it is administered is entirely dependent upon each member’s autonomy. I would like to conclude by asking for your active participation in our activities and events as well as your continued support for JAPT.