What we do

Petroleum Products Businesses involve oil refining, the sale of fuel products, and the development and sale of lubricants.
Our refineries are optimally balanced across the nation, spread over four areas (Hokkaido, Chiba Prefecture, Aichi Prefecture and Yamaguchi Prefecture). With a total refining capacity of 640,000 barrels per day, our efficiently operating refineries have environmental preservation measures in place.
Additionally, approximately 4,300 service stations (SS) under the Idemitsu brand name are located throughout Japan, selling gasoline, diesel and other fuel products. We also sell heavy oil and jet fuel to the industrial sector, as well as kerosene and LPG for household use.
Our involvement in the lubricants business extends back more than 90 years. We supply lubricants from our bases all over the world.

Idemitsu manufactures and sells performance chemicals including adamantane; engineering plastics such as polycarbonate; and plastic processed products in addition to basic chemicals including ethylene and propylene. Our operations include petrochemical plants in Chiba and Yamaguchi situated alongside oil refineries in order to realize chemical refinery complexes that boast a sophisticated level of integration covering oil refining through final petrochemical product. At the same time, we are leveraging our proprietary technologies in an effort to differentiate our products from the market. Through these means, Idemitsu is actively promoting business expansion.

The Idemitsu Group is promoting the exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas in Norway, Vietnam and the U.K. We now produce approximately 30,000 barrels per day, mainly at the Snorre and Fram oil fields in the Norwegian North Sea.

In addition to coal mining operations in Australia and a geothermal energy business in Oita Prefecture, the Company is engaged in businesses in areas as diverse as electronic materials, agri-bio products, SS-related products, engineering and insurance.

Idemitsu Kosan's OLED materials

We have developed world-class OLED materials that are the combination of sophisticated, precise organic synthesis technologies and accurate performance evaluation methods. Our expertise lies particularly in the development of new materials, a skill that we have nurtured over many years of creating new petrochemical products, as well as our expertise in physical electronics technologies, an area in which we are pioneering new businesses. Sony Corporation launched the world's first OLED TV display in November 2007, and in May 2008 the Company, in alliance with Sony, achieved the world's best luminous efficiency levels for OLED display elements. The two companies are now doing further studies with a view to expanding the OLED TV display market.
We intend to contribute toward technological advances in core device manufacturing, large panel and flexible display technologies by developing new materials. We are also diversifying into OLED lighting that takes advantage of the properties of OLEDs as light sources.

We identified the superior performance of lithium sulfide as a secondary battery material when evaluating the uses of high-purity lithium sulfide produced for the PPS resin process.
Lithium ion secondary batteries manufactured using this material are far safer than conventional batteries made using flammable liquids because the electrolyte is a solid.
We are making full use of our own and other research resources to meet the technological development challenges involved in the commercialization of lithium ion secondary batteries for automobiles (due to be fitted on vehicles around 2012) and various other applications.

Microbial fermentation technologies originated in the late 1960s in the context of research on protein production from ethanol using microbial fermentation.
Working with this technology, we developed a comprehensive set of microbial technologies based on the principles of microbial selection and adding microbial functions. We began developing unique agrichemicals and livestock supplies based on natural ingredients in accordance with a business concept that focuses on environmental preservation and food safety long before the current interest in the issue emerged.
In recent years, we have engaged in R&D aimed at reducing greenhouse gas production by cows and other ruminants. This technology involves natural substances that are effective in helping livestock gain weight while allowing farmers to reduce the use of antibiotics with livestock.