On November 12, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation announced to open eleven commercial hydrogen stations now under construction by the end of 2014 starting with the one located in Ebina City, Kanagawa prefecture in mid-December.

JX has already received orders to construct hydrogen commercial stations at 23 locations out of the 2013 and 2014 Subsidy Programs for promotion projects, and revealed at this time that eleven locations to be opened are those granted for the 2013 subsidy program.
　
The stations will get involved in the hydrogen filling business for FCV. The eleven commercial stations disclosed this time consist of 8 stations of SS type (combined with gasoline stands) and 3 hydrogen stations of stand-alone type. JX proposes an integrated business model from production to sales of hydrogen in which hydrogen produced in its own oil refinery is transported by trailer to the group’s SS stations for H2 filling along with gasoline filling.
The stand-alone stations are facilities dedicated for only hydrogen filling service where there is no candidate of locations found for SS combined station.

Regarding the stations combined with SS, self-filling type stands are also included. For hydrogen filling, however, only qualified persons can handle the high pressure gas. Therefore, the company is now carrying out training of dedicated operators to fill hydrogen. The supply of hydrogen to the stations has been announced to come from JX’s refinery, by its own transportation, but at the initial stage to fill a small volume it is planned to procure hydrogen for external shipment using curdles.

JX remains twelve more projects granted under the previous national subsidy program. The　 remaining projects will be planned for implementation by a mobile system. As soon as details are decided, JX will announce officially the time and method of implementation.

Regarding the prior improvement of H2 infrastructure for FCV, JX has announced to consider implementation at 40 locations. As for the remaining 17 locations, JX showed intention to select candidate locations for implementation in the subsequent years.