Japan to Raise Refinery Maintenance 20% This Year, Paper Says

Tokyo, April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese oil refineries will service 20 percent more capacity in the year started April 1 than last year, Japanese trade newspaper Nenryoyushi said, without citing sources. Maintenance will be concentrated in June when 1.03 million barrels of daily capacity will be taken off. That will be the first time in two years for Japan to see more than 1 million barrels of daily capacity idled for any single month, the report said.

Starting April 1, Idemitsu Kosan Co., the nation's second largest oil refiner, cut its daily production capacity by 80,000 barrels, or 10 percent of its parent capacity, to 720,000 barrels in an effort to shore up oil product prices.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/news2.cgi?T=energy_refout.ht&s=82995197

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 05, 2000