Nippon, CNPC delay launch of JV

Nippon Oil Corp. has delayed its plan to jointly operate with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) a 115,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Osaka, Japan. The company said the joint venture, initially set for an April 2009 launch, would be operational in June or later, as the companies have yet to finalize their deal. Under the agreement, the state-run Chinese oil giant would primarily take responsibility for marketing products from the refinery within the Asia-Pacific region. The refinery complex has crude storage capacity of 570,000 kiloliters (3.59 million barrels) and storage capacity of 831,000 kiloliters for finished and unfinished oil products. Meanwhile, Nippon is also delaying its planned merger with sister company Nippon Mining Holdings Inc. to April 2010, to allow the merger to clear U.S. regulatory hurdles. (February 23/27/ March 2, 2009)