RTRS: UPDATE 2-Japan's JX to lower Sept oil refining runs
* Sees quake-hit Kashima refinery returning to full capacity
in Nov
* Says able to refine crude flat yr/yr in Oct-March despite
Sendai shutdown
(Adds detail)
By Risa Maeda
TOKYO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Japan's top oil refiner JX Nippon
said on Wednesday it will make up for lost earthquake-hit output
but high fuel stocks meant that overall its production for the
home market in September will be nine percent lower year on
year.
A company executive said JX Nippon will also keep total
refining capacity steady in the October-March period from a year
earlier by boosting processing at other plants to make up the
quake-hit Sendai refinery.
Crude distillation units (CDUs) at its Mizushima, Marifu and
Negishi plants are due to enter regular maintenance during the
period.
JX Nippon Oil and Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of JX
Holdings Inc , said last month said it would resume
refining operations at the 145,000 barrels per day (bpd) Sendai
refinery at the end of March 2012.
Sendai is the only refinery in the devastated Tohoku region
in northern Japan and one of two refineries still shut since the
March quake and tsunami.
"Despite the loss of the Sendai refinery until the end of
March, we're tuning up the other plants and logistics to secure
stable supply for the winter, when kerosene demand usually
peaks," Tsutomu Sugimori, the company's senior vice president in
charge of retail fuel sales, said at a news conference.
Japan's total oil product sales in July fell 0.6 percent
from a year earlier, still reeling from economic disruption
caused by the March disaster, government data showed on
Wednesday.
But oil demand in the world's third-biggest oil consumer
could turn positive in the coming months as government curbs on
power consumption in the summer peak demand period come to an
end, and manufacturers including the auto sector gradually
return to normal production.
MAINTENANCE WORKS
JX also said it expects another quake-hit refinery, Kashima,
to return to full production capacity from around November,
from its current run rate of about 70 percent.
The company plans to complete repair work on the loading and
shipping facilities at the pier of the 252,500 bpd Kashima
refinery, north of Tokyo, by the end of October.
In September, JX plans to refine 5.11 million kilolitres
(1.07 million barrels per day), down 480,000 kl from a year
earlier, Sugimori said, as oil companies have piled up
inventories in particular of gasoline, gas oil and A-fuel oil.
JX also plans to export oil products of 450,000 kl in
September, down by 220,000 kl from a year earlier. In August,
its total crude processing was estimated at 5.82 million kl,
down 90,000 kl from its initial plan.
The company's fire-hit 60,000 barrels per day No.3 vacuum
distillation unit (VDU) at its Mizushima-A refinery is set to
restart on Wednesday after repairs are complete.
The 150,000 bpd No.3 CDU at the refinery is then to enter a
planned maintenance on Sept. 11 for about one month.
Similar maintenance works are due over the six months to
next March on the sole 127,000 bpd CDU at the Marifu refinery in
western Japan and one of the two CDUs at the 270,000 bpd Negishi
refinery, south of Tokyo, Sugimori added.
JX has group crude refining capacity of 1,527,000 bpd. In
addition, it operates two condensate splitters with total
capacity of 98,500 bpd.
Following is a table of JX's estimates of the industry's
nationwide oil product sales for August:
Demand August
Oil products Yr/Yr %
Gasoline -4
Kerosene -16
Gas oil +1
A fuel oil -3
C fuel oil (utilities) +23
C fuel oil (other) -10
Following is a table of the company's oil product exports
outlook.
Oil exports Sept August
Year kl kl
2011 450,000 440,000
2010 670,000 660,000
Oil imports Sept August
Year kl kl
2011 n/a 80,000 (gasoline from South Korea)
2010 0
