Making up approximately 50% of total gas production in Japan—even though over 20 years have passed since the commencement of production in 1984—the Minami-Nagaoka Gas Field, which INPEX CORPORATION discovered in 1979, is the largest gas field in Japan. Produced and processed natural gas, which is transported through a 1,300 km trunk pipeline network that stretches across the Kanto-Koshinetsu region surrounding the Tokyo metropolitan area, is supplied to city gas companies and industrial customers along the pipeline network. In recent years, the demand for natural gas has grown substantially in Japan because it is cleaner and more environmentally friendly compared with other fuels and competing fuel prices have soared. The Company’s sales volume for fiscal 2007 reached approximately 1.7 billion m3, a 40% increase over the previous year, due to the expanding supply area through aggressive pipeline development in new areas. This represents a threefold increase in sales volume compared to 1996. Going forward, in the medium- to long-term, annual demand is forecast to reach the scale of 2 billion to 3 billion m3. The Company is vigorously reinforcing production facilities in addition to enhancing pipeline transport capacity with the aim of shoring up growth. Furthermore, we started preparations to build an LNG import terminal in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture. We will expand our gas business, focusing on the establishment by the end of 2013 of a “natural gas value chain” that organically connects the domestic infrastructure with our group’s overseas natural gas assets prospectively.