TOKYO, March 30 - Nippon Oil Corp., Japan's top oil refiner, said on Monday it is likely to keep low crude runs from May despite some recovery in gasoline sales helped by highway toll discounts that started over the weekend.
Gasoline sales over the weekend were up 19 percent from a year earlier, compared with falls of around 5 percent for the previous four weekends in March, according to a Nippon Oil survey of about 2,000 gas stations.
Masahito Nakamura, a company senior vice president, cited a favourable comparison with the year-earlier month when drivers had held off on gasoline purchases before an expected tax-related fall in pump prices, as well as the toll discounts that began on March 28.
"Compared with the previous four weekends, sales were up around 24 percent," he told reporters. "I am hopeful that sales will be strong from April onwards."
He added that there were no concerns about gasoline shortages despite the jump in demand as supplies of naphtha, which can be easily converted to gasoline, were at adequate levels amid weak petrochemical demand.
The company repeated its plans to refine 3.65 million kilolitres (765,000 barrels per day) of crude oil next month, down 23 percent from the same period a year earlier, the sixth straight month of refining curbs, as the economic slowdown hurts demand in the world's third-biggest oil consumer.
Despite the uptick in weekend gasoline sales, the company's gasoline sales in March overall were likely to be little changed from the year before, Nakamura said.
Nippon Oil estimated its March crude refining to meet domestic demand at 3.97 million kl, down 22 percent from the year-earlier period. That would be lower than its original plan to refine 3.99 million kl in the month.
Nippon Oil, which delayed its planned merger with smaller refiner Nippon Mining Holdings Inc by six months to April 2010, has crude refining capacity of 1.317 million barrels per day, more than a quarter of Japan's total crude refining capacity.
March demand for fuel oil by nine Japanese utilities probably fell 60 percent from a year earlier to 470,000 kl, the company estimated.
Following is a table of Nippon Oil's estimated production for March and plans for April (volumes in kilolitres, with changes from same month a year earlier in brackets):
Production March April
Gasoline 1.32 mln (+60,000 kl) 1.13 mln (-140,000 kl)
Middle Dist. 2.16 mln (-480,000 kl) 1.92 mln (-420,000 kl)
C-fuel oil 0.61 mln (-380,000 kl) 0.59 mln (-400,000 kl)
Gasoline sales over the weekend were up 19 percent from a year earlier, compared with falls of around 5 percent for the previous four weekends in March, according to a Nippon Oil survey of about 2,000 gas stations.
Masahito Nakamura, a company senior vice president, cited a favourable comparison with the year-earlier month when drivers had held off on gasoline purchases before an expected tax-related fall in pump prices, as well as the toll discounts that began on March 28.
"Compared with the previous four weekends, sales were up around 24 percent," he told reporters. "I am hopeful that sales will be strong from April onwards."
He added that there were no concerns about gasoline shortages despite the jump in demand as supplies of naphtha, which can be easily converted to gasoline, were at adequate levels amid weak petrochemical demand.
The company repeated its plans to refine 3.65 million kilolitres (765,000 barrels per day) of crude oil next month, down 23 percent from the same period a year earlier, the sixth straight month of refining curbs, as the economic slowdown hurts demand in the world's third-biggest oil consumer.
Despite the uptick in weekend gasoline sales, the company's gasoline sales in March overall were likely to be little changed from the year before, Nakamura said.
Nippon Oil estimated its March crude refining to meet domestic demand at 3.97 million kl, down 22 percent from the year-earlier period. That would be lower than its original plan to refine 3.99 million kl in the month.
Nippon Oil, which delayed its planned merger with smaller refiner Nippon Mining Holdings Inc by six months to April 2010, has crude refining capacity of 1.317 million barrels per day, more than a quarter of Japan's total crude refining capacity.
March demand for fuel oil by nine Japanese utilities probably fell 60 percent from a year earlier to 470,000 kl, the company estimated.
Following is a table of Nippon Oil's estimated production for March and plans for April (volumes in kilolitres, with changes from same month a year earlier in brackets):
Production March April
Gasoline 1.32 mln (+60,000 kl) 1.13 mln (-140,000 kl)
Middle Dist. 2.16 mln (-480,000 kl) 1.92 mln (-420,000 kl)
C-fuel oil 0.61 mln (-380,000 kl) 0.59 mln (-400,000 kl)
