When it Comes to Life Insurance make a Good Decision Choose LIC. www.licindia.in/bima_account1 Japan scrambled on Saturday to reduce pressure in two nuclear plants damaged after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck its northeast coast, probably killing at least 1,300 people. The earthquake, of magnitude 8.9, hit commodities prices across the board on fears over its impact on the world's third largest consumer of commodities. U.S. crude prices spiralled further down after a second tremor of magnitude 5.8 struck. The tsunami triggered by the earthquake did no major damage when it reached the Pacific coast of North and South America early on Saturday. Oil refineries and power plants on the U.S. West Coast had stood on guard against the possible tsunami, and thousands of people had fled their homes. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) was taking steps to release pressure at its two nuclear power plants in Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan warned that minute amounts of radiation had been released from the Fukushima plant, whose cooling system was knocked out from the first earthquake. Radiation levels at the plant's central control unit were 1,000 times the normal level. Here is the impact on the energy and commodities sector from Japan's disaster: OIL - U.S. crude oil prices slipped further on the news that a fresh earthquake hit Japan on Saturday. Front-month crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange traded down $1.76 a barrel by 2:13 p.m. to $100.94, settling the day at $101.16. - With one-third of Japanese refining capacity shut and ports closed, Wells Fargo Securities analysts said crude oil tankers headed to Japan would be diverted to other Asian refineries. - U.S. refinery margins were higher on Friday on expectations that Japan will need product imports. - U.S. energy companies with operations in Hawaii, Alaska and along the California coast including oil refineries were bracing for the possible impact of a tsunami after the Japan earthquake. - Maruzen shut two naphtha crackers at Chiba with capacities of 480,000 and 690,000 tonnes of ethylene per year, respectively. - Kyokuto Petroleum said it shut its 175,000-bpd Chiba refinery after the quake, and will not reopen until Saturday at earliest. - Major explosion hits petrochemical complex in northeast Japan's Miyagi prefecture, Kyodo news agency says. - Cosmo Oil said a fire at its Chiba refinery started from near LPG tank, not yet extinguished. - JX Holdings said it was working to shut 404,000-tpy Kawasaki naphtha cracker near Tokyo. - JX Holdings said fire at Sendai refinery originated from a land oil product shipping facility nearby, not an LPG tank as feared earlier. Workers were being evacuated and there was no work underway to extinguish the fire, a spokesman said. - Tonengeneral says shuts main units at its 335,000-bpd Kawasaki refinery near Tokyo. - Mitsubishi Chemical says halts operations of two naphtha crackers at Kashima after power outage. - AOC Holdings says its 140,000-bpd Sodegaura refinery continued operations, but has cut runs of two fluid catalytic cracking units. - Petrobras said operations were normal at its 100,000-bpd Nansei Sekiyu refinery. NUCLEAR - Japan warned of a possible radiation leak as authorities began trying to reduce pressure at two damaged nuclear plants, sending tens of thousands of residents out of the area to avoid possible contamination. - Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had begun steps to release pressure at its two nuclear power plants in Fukushima, some 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. - Kyodo news agency quoted the company as saying it was having difficulties opening a valve at its Daiichi reactor to release pressure. - Tohoku Elec's Onagawa nuclear plant had water leakage, no radioactivity leakage, news agency Kyodo said. POWER - TEPCO said it foresaw a power shortage of 10 million KW on weekdays, compared to a shortfall of 7 million on Sunday, adding that it would consider asking customers to accept outages in turns from Sunday. - Dynegy said it was monitoring its Moss Landing gas-fired plant in California after the tsunami alert. - PG&E Corp said its reactors were designed to deal with any large waves that might hit the California coast. - Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International, said its workers were monitoring "unusual small waves" off the coast of its San Onofre Plant. - Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Friday power had been cut to 4 million homes. - Electric Power Development (J-Power) has halted operations at its Isogo thermal plant in Yokohama, Jiji reported. METALS - Fire at Sumitomo Metal Industries Kashima steel mill, Jiji reported. - Pan Pacific Copper said its Hitachi refinery had halted operations due to power outage. - Mitsui Mining said operation at Hachinohe Zinc smelter had halted, and all employees were evacuated. - Sumitomo Metal Industries said it temporarily suspended operations at two blast furnaces at Kajima plant. - Mitsubishi Material said its Onahama copper smelter was halted by an electricity outage from quake. COMMODITIES - The 19-component Reuters Jeffries CRB commodity price index was down about 0.8 percent. - The price of gold was pushed higher as a result of the Japan earthquake. Spot gold rose to $1,424.05 an ounce by 1:43 p.m. EST (1843 GMT), up from $1,412.59 late in New York on Thursday. - U.S. natural gas prices rose to trade at a high of $3.947 on Friday partly on the expectation that higher gas demand in Japan to replace lost nuclear capacity would tighten the global supply/demand balance. Futures pared gains by day's end, settling at $3.889, adding 5.9 cents. - U.S. wheat futures plunged to their lowest in more than three months as the earthquake heightened concerns about the global economy and reinforced a recent pullback in grain prices. - The Tokyo Commodity Exchange said there was no damage to rubber warehouses from the quake. TRANSPORTATION - All Japanese ports closed, with discharge operations halted, after the quake and tsunami, shippers said. - A ship carrying 100 people was swept away, Kyodo news agency said. - One train derailed, another missing in Japan's quake-hit Miyagi prefecture, Kyodo news agency said. - Contact was lost with four trains along the Japanese coast. (Compiled by Clarence Fernandez in Singapore and Janine Prezioso in New York) Follow us on Facebook to get the latest finance and business related updates. Click here for the latest from Union Budget 2011.

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