JX Nippon Oil's lubricant facility now fully operational after fire

JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., Japan’s top oil refiner, announced that its 8,200 barrel per day lubricant manufacturing facility in the Negishi refinery, near Tokyo, which caught fire on October 9 is fully operational and that the fire did not affect the refinery’s oil producing units. The lubricant oil unit was shut down for a scheduled maintenance when a fire occurred in the heat-exchanger system. The fire had no impact on the refinery’s other oil-processing units, including the two crude distillation units (CDUs), a company official said. The fire lasted for about two and a half hours before it was put out. The company said it will investigate the cause of the blaze. (October 10, 2011)