Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy sold a total 44.04 million kiloliters, or 1.01 million b/d, of oil products in the domestic market over April-December 2012, up 5.3% year on year, JX Holdings, the parent company of the largest Japanese refiner, said Tuesday.
In the nine months to December 31, JX sold 5.66 million kl or 129,000 b/d of fuel oil for power generation, up 43.3% from a year ago, the company said.
Its fuel oil sales to non-power sectors, however, slid 7% year on year to 1.98 million kl or 45,000 b/d over the period.
JX sold 3.78 million kl or 86,000 b/d of crude oil "mainly as direct burning feedstock for power generation" over April-December, up 32.2% year on year, a company official said.
Japanese refiners have been facing higher demand for both crude and fuel oil for thermal power generation, to make up for a shortfall in nuclear output after the March 2011 earthquake.
JX's oil product exports jumped 12.8% year on year to 7.51 million kl, or 172,000 b/d, in the nine months to December 31, the company said.
Meanwhile, according to JX's estimates, Japan's domestic oil demand was 144.440 million kl, or 3.30 million b/d, over April-December, up 2.7% from a year ago.
Its domestic oil market share also rose to 36.2% in the nine months to December 31, up from 35.3% a year ago, JX added.
JX Holdings had 11,516 branded service stations at the end of December -- roughly 42% of the total 27,215 service stations owned by local Japanese refiners, and 32% of the total 35,500 service stations, including private brands, in the country, the company said.
JX Holdings' average refining run rate came in at 87% in the April-December period, the company said.
The revenue from its oil refining business rose 5.6% year on year to Yen 6.9744 trillion ($75.5 billion) in April-December.
Its refining segment's ordinary profit dropped 61.7% from a year ago to Yen 61 billion in the nine-month period as a result of deteriorating margins for oil products and petrochemicals, the company said. Stripping out inventory valuations, the refining segment's profit came in at Yen 72.8 billion, down 13.8% from a year ago.
On November 2, JX said it will suspend refining operations at its 180,000 b/d Muroran refinery in Hokkaido, northern Japan at the end of March 2014 as part of its mid-term business plan to respond to diminishing domestic oil demand.
The 180,000 b/d refining capacity at Muroran accounts for roughly 13% of JX's total refining capacity of 1.392 million b/d. Its total refining capacity will fall to 1.212 million b/d as of the end of March 2014.
The company will convert the refinery into an oil terminal and petrochemical plant from June 2014, it added.
