Japan’s ENEOS to begin restart process for Sendai refinery from H1 April

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Japanese refiner ENEOS Corp plans to begin restart process for its Sendai refinery in the first half of April, more than a month since the shutdown on 13 February due to a major earthquake in northeast Japan.

The refinery in Miyagi prefecture has a 145,000 bbl/day capacity.

“We are planning the schedule that we restart each facilities sequentially from the first half of April 2021,” an Eneos spokesperson told ICIS.

At Negishi, where Eneos produces aromatics such as benzene, mixed xylene, toluene, as well as propylene and base oils, the facilities have restarted sequentially from 21 February, the spokesperson said.

Eneos declined to disclose the financial impact of the shutdowns.

The 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Fukushima prefecture on 13 February caused a massive power outage that affected refinery and petrochemical operations in northeast Japan.