Japanese upstream companies are looking to tight oil to supplement dwindling domestic output and may seek to use the experience gained to become involved in similar projects abroad. Japan Petroleum Exploration intends to seek out further prospects by the end of March 2020 over three years since the drilling of Japan’s first horizontal exploration well in the Onnagawa tight formation at its onshore oil field in northwestern Akita province. “While we cannot commit ourselves yet, we will look into the opportunities while monitoring oil prices during the current medium-term business plan,” Satoru Yokoi, geologist and technical fellow of Japex’s Japan-Onnagawa shale oil project team said in an interview with S&P Global Platts. Japex, which earlier this year concluded a pilot test involving multi-stage fracturing from a horizontal well, successfully fractured mostly as intended in the Onnagawa formation, Yokoi, one of Japan’s shale pioneers, said. After drilling and fracturing from […]