REUTERS
February 16, 2021 at 13:10 JST
Concrete poles for overhead electric lines powering the Tohoku Shinkansen Line stand at angles in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, on Feb. 14 due to a powerful earthquake the previous night. (Motoyuki Tanaka)
Japanese refiners led by the biggest, Eneos Corp., shut down a fifth of the country’s crude oil refining capacity after a powerful earthquake struck northeastern Japan knocking out power, bullet train lines and injuring more than 150 people.
They refinery shutdowns in the world’s fourth-biggest oil importer are another potential hit after the pandemic led to the evaporation of crude demand over the last year.
As much as 743,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil-processing capacity has been idled, nearly 22 percent of Japan’s roughly 3.4 million bpd capacity.
The refineries in locations from Yokohama to Sendai near the epicenter of the 7.3-magnitude earthquake, which struck a little before midnight on Saturday, either automatically shut down or were idled immediately for checks.
Eneos said on Monday it shut down its 145,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Sendai refinery after it was hit by a large earthquake on Saturday. The company is still making checks on the refinery and does not have a restart date, the spokesman said.
Eneos later said the company’s 270,000 bpd Negishi refinery, had also closed and it had no date for the resumption of operations.
The earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan, injuring scores of people, triggering widespread power outages and causing damage across parts of northern Japan, including in Fukushima which is still recovering a decade after a bigger quake in the same area.
Fuji Oil Co. Ltd. shut the 143,000 barrel-per-day crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Sodegaura oil refinery in Chiba, east of Tokyo, after it was hit by an earthquake on Saturday, a company spokesman said on Monday.
Fuji Oil’s only refinery was shut down automatically after the quake and the company plans to restart the CDU on Tuesday as no damage was found, the spokesman said.
Idemitsu Kosan did not immediately respond to a request to comment on media reports it had shut down its 190,000 bpd Chiba refinery, also because of the quake.
Fire on tanker off Sri Lanka under control, ship towed away
September 5, 2020OPEC, Russia OK biggest-ever oil cut to support prices
April 13, 2020
Asian stocks gain on hopes pandemic is approaching peak
April 9, 2020Quake shakes eastern Indonesia amid virus outbreak
March 29, 2020
Ships, aircraft fight new fire on oil tanker off Sri Lanka
September 8, 2020
China buys crude as prices collapse, adding to stockpiles
April 23, 2020
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
