Understand any stock in simple English
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Inpex Corporation
Inpex finds, pumps, and sells oil and natural gas around the world.
Inpex is an energy company that searches for oil and natural gas, pulls it out of the ground, and sells it. Most of us never buy anything from Inpex directly. Instead, its customers are big buyers like power plants, factories, and other energy companies that need fuel to keep things running. Japan has almost no oil of its own, so a company like Inpex matters a lot to the country's energy supply.
Its most important asset is the Ichthys project off the coast of Australia. Inpex operates the field, where gas is pulled from deep under the seafloor, piped to a huge floating facility, chilled into liquid, and loaded onto ships. Turning gas into liquid lets it be carried across oceans to buyers in Japan and beyond. This one project is the engine behind much of the company's production and cash flow. Inpex also has stakes in oil and gas fields in places like Indonesia, the Middle East, and Norway, and it has been building up its business in the United States. It earns money by selling the oil and gas it produces, so its profits swing with energy prices. When prices are high, Inpex gushes cash; when they fall, the squeeze is real. To keep growing, it spends heavily on finding and developing new fields, and it also pays dividends and buys back its own shares to return money to investors.
The big question hanging over Inpex is the energy transition. The world is slowly shifting toward cleaner power, which could shrink demand for oil and gas over time. Inpex's answer is to keep selling fossil fuels while also investing in cleaner projects like hydrogen and carbon capture. Whether that balance works out is the story to watch.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026