Nippon Oil completes ETBE unit at Negishi refinery

Japan’s largest refiner, Nippon Oil Corp., is scheduled to complete work on the 1,723 barrel per day (bpd) ETBE unit at the company’s Negishi refinery in Tokyo Bay by October 26, a company official said. However, he declined to say when the company would start test runs at the unit, despite Nippon Oil saying earlier that it planned to start commercial operations in January 2010. Nippon Oil’s move to produce ETBE is part of a commitment made by the Petroleum Association of Japan, of which the refiner is a member, to consume 840,000 kiloliters/year of ETBE-blended gasoline in Fiscal 2010-2011. (October 20, 2009)