Collaboration – Japan, Norway and NTNU Oceans

GCE Subsea partner NTNU Oceans initiated a meeting between Japanese and Norwegian businesses, organisations and universities in Tokyo 1 March 2017. Exploration of the continental shelf and deep sea mining was on the agenda.

Japan is importing most of the country’s needs for commodities, including minerals. Deep sea mining and players on that scene is therefore a focus issue for future development and value creation.

NTNU Oceans Plays a Key Role

Ingrid Schjølberg, director of NTNU Oceans, initiated the meeting that took place at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo. NTNU Oceans is a leading international player offering multidisciplinary research and education within ocean innovation.

- We want to collaborate with Japanese universities and businesses within research and development, says Schjølberg. - Both countries have vast ocean areas and there are a number of common issues that we can discuss for future collaboration.

Japan Focusing on Deep Sea Mining

Japan has two governmental sections for ocean economics and resources, JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) and JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation).

Through the programmes MEXT and METI-ANRE they respectively deal with development of technology for ocean exploration and physical exploration of methane hydrate, polymetallic nodules and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts.

During 2017 a scale pilot project on integrated mining and lifting system will be run near Okinawa. Plans for commercial excavation of methane hydride is set to 2023-2027. Japan does also have exploration rights to seabed areas in the Pacific Ocean, thought to have rich contains of cobolt and polymetallic nodules.

Hiroyuki Nakahara is Managing Director at Research Institute for Ocean Economics in Tokyo and secretary for Japan’s Ocean Mining Industry Promotion Round Table. He is an important link to Japanese deep sea mining and ocean resources.

His knowledge and network will play a significant role when building relationships between Japanese and Norwegian industry and education. - I will be most happy to be a catalyst for cooperation between Japan and Norway, Nakahara commented when ending the meeting.

GCE Subsea’s Role in Future Collaboration

Our Subsea Innovator Trond Strømgren took part in the meeting. He informed the audience about the world leading competence within the GCE Subsea cluster and that GCE Subsea identifies deep sea mining as one of three focus areas for crossover between oil and gas and related ocean industries.

Strømgren also focused on Subsea Index as an international match making tool, ready to be used by Japanese players. – In my opinion Japan has made a well-focused and ambitious plan for exploration and excavation within deep sea mining, says Strømgren. – GCE Subsea will naturally be one of Japans contact points with the Norwegian subsea industry. We are ready to offer our services, he ends.