November 27th, 2009

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Memorandum of Understanding signed between JOGMEC and INK
regarding GTL Joint StudyJapan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (“JOGMEC”, President: Hirobumi
Kawano, Head Office: Kawasaki City) is pleased to announce that it has signed aMemorandum of Understanding with Limited Liability Company “Irkutsk Oil
Company” (“INK”, President: Nikolai Mikhailovich Buinov, Head Office: City ofIrkutsk) in Irkutsk Oblast (Russian Federation) on November 26, 2009 tocommence a GTL (*) Joint Study titled “Collaborative Study on the Applicability ofJAPAN-GTL Process (**) to Irkutsk Oil Company Natural Gas Resources”. ThisJoint Study is to be undertaken in cooperation with the Nippon GTL Technology
Research Association and its aim over the next year is to consider the possibilityof utilizing GTL technology to achieve the earliest possible commercialization ofliquid fuel products (such as gas oil from natural gas resources) produced in theINK owned gas fields in Irkutsk Region, Eastern Siberia. These resources aredifficult to develop from an economic viewpoint because they are located in anarea far from the market and/or only contain small or middle sized amounts ofrecoverable reserves.
JOGMEC and INK have recently been jointly conducting exploration works on theSevero-Mogdinsky, Bolshetirsky and Zapadno-Yaraktinsky blocks in eastern
Siberia with the aim of transporting produced oil to the Pacific coast by pipeline.
This Joint Study targets the natural gas produced from INK owned mining areas
other than the three above. It will create the possibility to develop cooperation in a
new area between Japan and Russia if commercialization is confirmed throughthis Joint Study. Furthermore, as Russia is moving towards zero-flaring, there is
the possibility to contribute to the reduction of emissions.

1(*) GTLGTL stands for “Gas To Liquid.” It is a synthetic liquid fuel at ambient temperature
produced from natural gas widely distributed in the world and it is becoming analternative fuel to kerosene and gas oil. It has recently attracted considerableattention as a low-pollution fuel due to the low amounts of sulfur and nitrogenoxide in the exhaust gas at combustion. At present Shell and Sasol leadcommercial plants in Malaysia and South Africa respectively with their owned
technologies and there is also a large scale of commercial project operating inQatar.
(**) JAPAN-GTL process
The JAPAN-GTL process is the proper process technology applied to the “GTL
Demonstration Project” which has been jointly developed between JOGMEC and“Nippon GTL Technology Research Association”. The GTL Demonstration Plant(which faces the Japan Sea in Niigata-City) was completed in April 2009 and isconducting a demonstration operation (with an aim to move towardcommercialization) at present. In the demonstration plant the core process splits
into three sections for Syngas, FT and upgrading sections. This summer we
confirmed the achievement of 500 barrels (80 kilo-liters) of GTL oil per day in thedemonstration operation through the entire system. We will schedule consecutive
operations and increase catalyst performance in the future based on thesuccesses in past demonstration operations.

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