Russia’s Irkutsk Oil Company (INK) plans to supply the Japanese market with environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel, the company confirmed to Kallanish.

“We are jointly working with the Japanese oil and gas state corporation JOGMEC and together we are studying in detail the possibilities of supplying this market with hydrogen and ammonia,” says INK’s chairman of the board of directors Nikolai Buinov.

INK, together with the Japanese companies JOGMEC, ToyoEngineering, ITOCHU, is preparing a feasibility study for the production of blue hydrogen in Eastern Siberia and its supply to Japan.

INK is one of the largest private producers of hydrocarbon raw materials in Russia. The company was founded in 2000 by Irkutsk entrepreneurs. The main shareholders are the head of the board of directors Nikolay Buinov and the general director Marina Sedykh. 

The enterprise conducts geological study, exploration and development of 51 subsoil areas in the Irkutsk Region, Yakutia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

As previously reported by Kallanish, Russia plans to expand its hydrogen production with the goal of becoming a global player. The Russian Energy Strategy sets hydrogen exports targets of 200,000 tonnes of hydrogen by 2024 and 2 million t by 2035.

Moscow is negotiating with Tokyo to start commercial exports of hydrogen to Japan. The exports push will also target other countries in Asia and Europe, including China, South Korea, Germany and France. South Korea already created a fund to work with Russia on hydrogen energy.