Japan's crude oil run rates dropped to 58.1% over May 16-22, the lowest level in 42 weeks, amid peak refinery maintenance season, unplanned outages and a sharp decline in domestic oil product demand due to a COVID-19 state of emergency and other restrictions.
The May 16-22 crude runs were down 62.3% from the week before, as the country's crude throughput fell 6.8% week on week to 2.01 million b/d in the week to May 22, data released May 26 by the Petroleum Association of Japan showed. The crude throughput, however, was up 1.7% from a year earlier, according to S&P Global Platts data.
The May 16-22 crude runs were the lowest since reaching 57.7% over July 26-Aug. 1, 2020.
"The low run rate is probably due to shutdowns of some refineries for regular repairs and troubles," a source with a Japanese refiner said May 26.
Japan had shut a combined refining capacity of 1.038 million b/d across seven crude distillation units as of May 22, accounting for 30% of the country's installed refining capacity of 3.458 million b/d.
The sole 136,000 b/d CDU at ENEOS' Oita refinery in the southwest and the sole 168,000 b/d CDU at its Kashima refinery on the east coast have been shut for unplanned repair works, while five other CDUs with a total refining capacity of 734,000 b/d have been idled for scheduled maintenance.
Domestic demand
Japan's gasoline demand has slowed in recent weeks as the country brought more prefectures under the state of emergency and priority measures following a rise in COVID-19 infections.
The country's May gasoline demand could drop by as much as 20% from the pre-pandemic level should the country impose stronger measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, the president of the Petroleum Association of Japan said April 19.
Estimated gasoline shipments to the domestic market fell 7.8% to 17.82 million barrels in the four weeks to May 22, down from 19.32 million barrels in the previous four weeks to April 24, according to Platts calculations.
Japan's estimated weekly gasoline shipments to the domestic market rebounded 2.8% from a week earlier to 4.24 million barrels in the week to May 22, marking the first week-on-week rise in three weeks, according to Platts calculations based on PAJ data. The May 16-22 estimated weekly gasoline shipments were down 9.1% from a year earlier, according to Platts calculations.
The country's crude stocks rose 1.4% week on week to 71.7 million barrels May 22, the PAJ data showed. The total was down 15.8% from a year earlier, according to Platts data.
Unfinished oil product stocks, or oil processed at refineries, totaled 43.19 million barrels May 22, down 1% from 43.63 million barrels the week before. The stocks were also down 12.7% from a year earlier, Platts data showed.
