Japan’s Eneos restarts Sendai, Chiba refineries

Japanese refiner Eneos has restarted its 145,000 b/d Sendai and 129,000 b/d Chiba refineries, which were forced to shut because of an earthquake offshore northeast Japan on 16 March.

Crude distillation units at Sendai and Chiba resumed on 25 March and 24 March respectively, according to the company. Eneos' 1.87mn refining capacity at its 10 refineries have now returned to full operations following the impact of the earthquake. The Sendai shutdown especially disrupted very-low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) deliveries, as the refinery produced VLSFO components to be distributed to other refineries.

Fellow domestic refiners Idemitsu, Cosmo Oil and Fuji Oil are currently operating all their refineries normally.

By Maiko Nakashima