Nippon Oil asks Sudan for additional Nile Blend for Dec-Jan
August 30, 2007 (TOKYO) — Japan’s largest refiner, Nippon Oil, is holding talks with Sudan to see if it can get additional supplies of Sudanese Nile Blend to meet an anticipated increase in demand from Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) for the winter season, Masahito Nakamura, senior vice president for Nippon Oil, said Wednesday.
“We have begun talks with local utilities to see how much additional fuel they would need for the winter demand season,” Nakamura told Platts on the sidelines of a press conference in Tokyo. “We are also talking with Sudan to see how much additional barrels of Nile Blend we can get over December-January.”
The company currently imports around 70,000-80,000 b/d of the Sudanese crude.
Nippon Oil’s approach comes on expectations that Tepco’s fuel procurement will spike, as the utility was forced to shut its largest nuclear power plant July 16 following a major earthquake.
Tepco’s nuclear power generation capacity has more than halved, falling to 6.44 GW from just seven units, compared with a normal nuclear generation capacity of 17.31 GW from 17 units across Japan, after it shut the earthquake-damaged 8.21 GW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in northwestern Japan.
The drop in its nuclear power generation has forced Tepco, Japan’s biggest utility, to boost its thermal power generation, using feedstocks such as direct-burning crudes, low sulfur waxy residue, low sulfur fuel oil, LNG and coal.
Japan’s winter power demand season typically lasts from December through March.
(Platts)