MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's largest refiner Eneos Corp (formerly known as JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy) has restarted the 168,000-bpd No.1 crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Kashima refinery, east of Tokyo, after it was shut on May 11 due to system trouble, reported Reuters with reference to a company spokeswoman's statement.
The refiner, which is a unit of Eneos Holdings Inc, plans to restart the 105,000-bpd No.3 CDU at its Mizushima-B refinery, western Japan, in early June, she said. The CDU was shut on Feb. 25 for turnaround.
It plans to shut down the 145,000 CDU at its Sendai refinery in northern Japan for planned maintenance in early June, the spokeswoman said.
The company's 141,000-bpd Sakai refinery in western Japan is expected to restart in late June after maintenance, she added.
Eneos plans to restart the 136,000 bpd CDU at its Oita refinery in southwestern Japan in August, she said. The Oita CDU, which was shut on May 12 last year for scheduled maintenance, has been shut due to a fire later that month.
As MRC wrote previously, ENEOS restarted its Sendai refinery in northeast Japanon 18 May, 2021. This refinery was hit by an earthquake on 1 May, 2021. Besides, on 18 May, the company shut down its Sakai refinery in western Japan for maintenance.
We remind that ENEOS Corporation restarted its naphtha cracker in Kawasaki on 1 February 2021. The company shut this cracker with an annual capacity of 515,000 tons/year of ethylene, 300,000 tons/year of propylene, and 105,000 tons/year of butadiene on 4 December, 2020, for repairment after a technical issue reported at the butadiene separation unit and initially planned to resume operations on 28 December, 2020.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
Japan's largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy was renamed ENEOS Corporation on 25 June, 2020, as part of a wider re-organization of the parent company JXTG Holdings. The move, which also involved renaming the parent company to ENEOS Holdings upon approval at its annual shareholders meeting in June 2020, comes as it strives to be a more comprehensive energy and materials company under its 2040 vision announced in May, 2019. JXTG Holdings was formed as a result of a merger between JX Holdings and TonenGeneral in April 2017. This followed the establishment of JX Holdings as a result of the merger between Nippon Oil and Nippon Mining Holdings in April 2010.
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