The decline from a year earlier is despite a boost from February to compensate for lower processing than planned that month after refining problems, said Tsutomu Sugimori, the company’s senior vice president in charge of retail fuel sales.
Its crude refining for domestic consumption in February was estimated at 5.48 million kl, down eight percent from a year earlier, he said.
It had originally planned to refine 5.88 million kl, but fell short due to trouble at some refining units, including an unplanned shutdown of the 150,000 barrels per day No.4 crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Negishi refinery, he said.
JX group refinery Osaka International Refining Co plans maintainance on a 115,000 bpd CDU at its Negishi refinery between March 11 and April 13, he said, slightly different from the schedule the group refinery gave earlier.
The company expects to export 280,000 kl of oil products in March, up 30,000 kl from a year earlier, after shipping 700,000 kl this month.
It imported 30,000 kl of oil products, mainly kerosene, in February, compared with nil a year earlier, he said.
The refining volumes do not cover condensate but include crude processed at its 51 percent-owned venture with Petrochina, Osaka International Refining Co, an export-oriented 115,000 barrels per day refinery.
The company, a wholly owned downstream oil subsidiary of JX Holdings, has group crude refining capacity of 1,507,200 barrels per day (bpd).
In addition, it operates two condensate splitters with total capacity of 98,500 bpd, but does not disclosed condensate processing volumes.
