Japan Energy Corp, the nation’s sixth-biggest oil refiner, said it plans to raise its crude oil processing volumes for the July-September quarter by 7 per cent from the same period last year to help feed a new condensate splitter.

Japan Energy, the refining unit of Nippon Mining Holdings, plans to refine 5.99 million kilolitres of crude oil including condensate in the third quarter, or 409,500 barrels per day, a company spokesman said.
The planned increase comes after Japan Energy group refiner Kashima Oil Co started in January commercial operations at a petrochemical complex, including a 60,000 bpd condensate splitter.
Japan Energy group refineries have crude distillation units (CDUs) with total capacity of 475,200 bpd, including the new condensate splitter.
Excluding the effect of the new condensate splitter, the company’s crude refining volumes will fall 4 per cent from a year earlier to 5.40 million kl in July-September, due to declining demand for gasoline, gas oil and kerosene as the shift away from oil accelerates, the spokesman added.
For the April-June period, Japan Energy estimated its crude refining volume at 5.63 million kl, up 20 per cent from a year earlier.
Excluding the effect of the condensate splitter, crude refining volumes for April-June were estimated to have risen 13 per cent from a year earlier to 5.29 million kl, the spokesman said.