JX Nippon may shut down Muroran refinery

Kyodo News reported that Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. said it could shut down oil refinery operations at its Muroran plant in Hokkaido by the end of March 2014. The report said the company will, however, keep the Muroran refinery as a manufacturing plant for petrochemical products. After cutting its daily output by 400,000 barrels from 2008, JX Nippon has decided to cut its output by an additional 200,000 barrels by the end of March 2014.
Shutting down the Muroran plant means that the company will cut by 13% its group refinery capacity, the equivalent of 180,000 barrels daily output. The Japanese government is requiring oil wholesalers to scale down refinery capacities by the end of fiscal 2013 due to stagnant domestic demand for gasoline brought about by an increase in the number of electric cars and fuel-efficient vehicles, as well as declining automobile sales.
 
JX Nippon, however, has issued a statement saying it had not made a firm decision on the refinery “at this point.” (October 29, 2012)