Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. (JAPEX) announced that the Seagull Block in the UK North Sea (hereinafter the "Seagull Project"), of which a part of interests is owned by our local subsidiary JAPEX UK E&P Ltd. (JUK), has commenced the production of crude oil and natural gas in November 2023 (GMT).

Seagull is an oil and gas field located in the central U.K. North Sea, around 230 km east offshore Aberdeen, Northeast Scotland. JUK has 15% of its interest since participation in the exploration in March 2014. In March 2019, BP, Neptune Energy, and JUK, which are the owners of interests, made the final investment decision on the crude oil and natural gas development and have been proceeding with the works related to the drilling of wells and production and supply facilities.

Production has just started and gradually raise production volume, with development work continuing in parallel. The total production capacity of all four wells to be developed is expected to be around 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent gross per day.

Crude oil and natural gas produced from the Seagull Project will be processed at the Central Processing Facility (CPF) of BP's existing offshore facility, ETAP (Eastern Trough Area Project). After that, crude oil will be transported via the Forties Pipeline System to the Kinneil Terminal in Grangemouth, eastern Scotland, and natural gas will be to the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) processing terminal at Teesside, northern England. The utilization of existing facilities for production and transportation contributes to the economic and operational efficiency of the Seagull Project, as well as lower impact on the surrounding environment.

About Japex

As a "comprehensive energy company" that stably supplies energy for the times, JAPEX will continue to invest in development to meet future demand for oil and gas, and at the same time, we will actively develop technologies such as CCS, which contribute to realizing carbon neutrality in 2050.