Kashima Oil's Ibaraki Refinery Weathers Japanese Earthquake Well

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Shortly after 6:40 p.m. on Thursday, May 5, Japan's Ibaraki prefecture suffered a magnitude-4.8 earthquake. While the quake was felt in central Tokyo, no serious damage or injury seems to have occurred.

Japan's seismic intensity scale measures the intensity of an earthquake from different locations on a scale of 1 (least intense) to 7 (most intense). The areas containing some of Japan's major refineries appear to have withstood a seismic intensity of 1 from the quake, meaning the earthquake was little felt in these areas.

Withstanding only a seismic intensity of 1, Kashima Oil Company Limited's (Tokyo) 203,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in the Ibaraki prefecture reported no impact from the quake. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Refinery Plant Database can click here for the plant profile.

The refinery had initiated planned maintenance beginning April 22, so the 35,500-BBL/d fluid catalytic cracking unit and other related units have been shut down since this time. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Refining Offline Event Database can click here for details on the shutdown.

Japan's refineries are intended to automatically shut down in the event of seismic activity approaching level 5. A seismic intensity of 1, which occurred at the refinery, causes little disturbance and, therefore, has little effect on a refinery's operations.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the world's leading provider of market intelligence across the upstream, midstream and downstream energy markets and all other major industrial markets. IIR's Global Market Intelligence Platform (GMI) supports our end-users across their core businesses, and helps them connect trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated project opportunities. Follow IIR on: LinkedIn.