Japan refiner Idemitsu Kosan resumes petroleum products exports

16 May 2011 12:16  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS)--Japanese refiner Idemitsu Kosan resumed exporting petroleum products earlier this month and plans to cut crude oil refining volume by 13% in April-June from the same period last year, the company said on Monday.

Some of Idemitsu’s oil tank facilities were damaged by the massive earthquake which hit northeast Japan on 11 March. The company combated this by temporarily halting exports of petroleum products and raising operating rates at the four refineries.

“As a result, we were able to restore our supply system almost to the level before the earthquake by the end of March, thus we have decided to restart exports [of petroleum products],” Idemitsu added.

From April to June, the company planned to refine a total of 5.6m kilolitres of crude oil at its four refineries, a decrease of 900,000 kilolitres from the year-before period, Idemitsu said.

In April alone, the company reduced refining volume by 2% year on year, while it aimed to reduce May refining volume by 34%, Idemitsu said.

It plans to cut the volume in June by 2% from the same time a year before, the company added.

The company’s Chiba refinery is currently undergoing a scheduled maintenance shutdown, which began in mid-April and is expected to last until early June, Idemitsu said.

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By: Tomomi Yokomura
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