TOKYO: Japan's total oil product sales in October rose 0.3 percent from a year earlier, government data showed on Wednesday, the first increase since August as higher demand for fuel oil by utilities offset falling consumption of gasoline and naphtha.
Japan, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, imported 0.2 percent more crude oil last month than a year earlier at 16.76 million kilolitres (3.4 million barrels per day), marking the second straight such rise after September's 4.5 percent jump.
Also behind the rise in imports was the appetite of utilities, reflecting record-low nuclear plant utilisation amid safety fears that forced them to turn to fossil fuels to avoid a shortfall in power supply.
No reactor shut for regular maintenance has been allowed to restart since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered a radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, giving rise to safety fears. Now only 10 of the 54 commercial reactors in Japan remain online.
Some utilities have submitted results of newly required stress tests on reactors to regain public trust. But eight more reactors are set to enter regular maintenance by February, and uncertainty remains over approval by the central and local governments for any restart.
Sales of crude for non-refining use jumped more than five-fold to 1.17 million kl last month, and 93 percent of the sales for such use were to utilities, the data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) also showed.
The data showed overall sales of oil products rose 0.3 percent to 15.76 million kl in October from a year earlier, of which gasoline sales fell 1.5 percent to 4.7 million kl, marking the eighth straight month of year-on-year decline.
Sales of naphtha fell year-on-year for the second month in a row, down 16.8 percent at 3.51 million kl.
In contrast, sales of B-type and C-type fuel oil combined, partly used for power generation, rose for the 15th straight month, up 49.9 percent from a year earlier at 1.98 million kl, the data showed.
The trend extended into November, with the latest weekly data by the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) showing demand for C-type fuel oil, the main fuel for power companies, jumped 91.8 percent last week from a year earlier.
Underlining METI's data for October, Japan's 10 regional power companies said earlier this week that they burned 200,000 bpd more crude and 136,000 bpd more low-sulphur fuel oil in October than a year earlier.
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