Japan's Kashima Oil to shut Ibaraki refinery in May for maintenance

25 January 2010 13:42  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Japanese refiner Kashima Oil will shut down its 195,000 bbl/day refinery at Ibaraki, Japan, in mid-May 2010 for scheduled maintenance work, an industry source said on Monday.

The full shutdown was expected to last around 40-50 days, the source said without disclosing exact dates.

The facilities include a 195,000 bbl/day crude distillation unit (CDU), a 42,000 bbl/day vacuum distillation unit (VDU), a 34,500 bbl/day fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) and a 22,000 bbl/day continuous catalytic reformer (CCR).

The source said the Kashima refinery was presently operating at around 77% of capacity and would continue to operate at that rate in February. It has been running at reduced rates due to poor refining margins and weak demand.

Kashima Oil is subsidiary of Japan Energy, which also operates the 205,200 bbl/day Mizushima refinery.

No major shutdowns were scheduled for the Mizushima refinery this year, apart from a 10-day delayed coker shutdown in March and also later in the year in September.

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By: James Dennis
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