ITOCHU Corporation was founded in 1858 by “Chubei Itoh” as a linen trading company. Over the past 160 years, we have steadily expanded our business. Today, we are a major trading conglomerate with around 100 offices in 62 countries worldwide.
Our business activities encompass domestic, import, export, and trilateral trade across various sectors, including textiles, machinery, metals, energy, chemicals, food, housing, information, and finance.
We also undertake business investments both in Japan and overseas.
We would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations on launching this commemorative website in honor of the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between the Sultanate of Oman and Japan. It is truly an honor to contribute to this special occasion.
In 1974, we became the first company in the world to trade crude oil with the Omani government. We have since developed a deep cooperative relationship with the Sultanate of Oman and Omani companies through trade transactions and business investments. Some significant examples include becoming a shareholder in Oman LNG, the first LNG project in Oman, and Qalhat LNG, an expansion of the first LNG project in the Sultanate of Oman.
We express our deepest gratitude to the Sultanate of Oman and Omani companies for their efforts and support in building our relationship. As we commemorate this significant milestone, we reaffirm our commitment to further strengthening this relationship and look forward to your continued support.
Over the past 50 years, our two countries have built a strong relationship that transcends historical and cultural differences through various exchanges. We firmly believe that we will be able to deepen this relationship even further in the future. In closing, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Sultanate of Oman and its people and wish them further development and future success.
Outline of Activities
In the 160 years since our founding, we have developed our business across various fields. Our business is based around Sampo-Yoshi—a corporate philosophy that has remained unchanged since our founding—and its two pillars of trading and business investment. Based on this philosophy, we aim to sustainably enhance our corporate value by creating a virtuous cycle of solving social issues through our business activities.
Our business with the Sultanate of Oman started with the world's first crude oil transaction with the Sultanate in 1974. Since then, our relationship has continued through transactions in areas such as the food and automobile industries. In the field of natural gas business development, we've participated as a shareholder in the Oman LNG and Qalhat LNG projects. These initiatives will continue to play a central role as a clean energy source and are providing steady production and sales. In the field of LNG trade, we purchase LNG from Oman LNG through a long-term contract. We're actively expanding these purchases through our business's trading functions to contribute to Japan's energy demand.
We were the first private company to conclude a crude oil offtake agreement with the Government of the Sultanate of Oman. This agreement celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. We are also expanding our crude oil trading activities by concluding similar agreements with other suppliers in the country.
In 2016, Barka Desalination Company, in which we participate as the largest shareholder, signed a contract for a 281,000 m3/day seawater desalination project in Barka, northern Oman, ensuring a stable supply of water for the Sultanate. This public-private partnership with the Government of Oman provides domestic water to the Muscat and Barka region, a severely water-stressed area. The scope of the Barka Desalination Company is constructing a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane seawater desalination plant and peripheral facilities, and also operation the plant for 20 years.
After achieving commercial operation in June 2018, the plant has successfully provided continuous supply of water, as the largest desalination plant in Oman.