Major companies in the oil industry Japan 2023, by total assets

As of March 2023, Eneos Holdings, Inc. topped the ranking of the leading companies in the petroleum industry in Japan, with total assets worth approximately ten trillion Japanese yen. The Japanese petroleum and metals company, formerly named JXTG Holdings, Inc., was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Tokyo.

Eneos Holdings, Inc.

The energy segment accounted for Eneos' largest operating income, while oil and natural gas exploitation and production constituted the smallest segment. In 2020, the company announced that it intended to further expand its oil and natural gas segment and aimed to improve oil field productivity to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The company is mostly involved in projects in resource-rich countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Oil industry in Japan

In recent years, petroleum was the energy source with the highest share of energy consumption in Japan. Since the archipelago lacks domestic fossil fuels, it is heavily dependent on imports. Most crude oil imports to Japan came from Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Nevertheless, the oil consumption in Japan has decreased significantly since 1995. It only shortly increased after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011, when nuclear energy was replaced by fossil fuels. In more recent years, figures continue to indicate a decline in the oil consumption as the country aims to diversify its energy mix to be less dependent on fossil fuel imports and to increase Japan's self-sufficiency rate of primary energy.