Japan's TEPCO Sept oil use down, coal consumption up

TOKYO, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co's (9501.T)
(TEPCO) consumption of crude and fuel oil tumbled last month from
a year ago as the utility relied on heavier usage of coal and
nuclear power to meet its electricity generation needs.

Asia's biggest utility said on Thursday its use of fuel oil
fell almost 90 percent from a year earlier, and its consumption
of crude oil fell by more than half, according to Reuters
calculations based on TEPCO's data.

For details on purchases and consumption, see table below.

The decline came as the power firm used over 90 percent more
coal and the utilisation rate at TEPCO's nuclear power plants
averaged a rate of 58.7 percent in the month of September, 11.3
percentage points higher than a year ago. [ID:nT187712]

Japan's power generation probably fell 9 percent in September
from a year ago, the sharpest drop in two months, as cool late
summer weather reduced air-conditioning usage, despite signs of
recovery by industrial users, Reuters projections based on
industry data showed. [ID:nT209737]

The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan is set to
release its statistics for September on Oct. 13.

Following is a table of TEPCO's consumption and purchases
for September. Volumes of crude and fuel oil are in kilolitres;
LNG and coal in tonnes. Last year's figures are in parentheses.

PURCHASES CONSUMPTION

SEPT 09 SEPT 08 % chg SEPT 09 SEPT 08 % chg
Fuel oil 61,000 589,000 -89.6 64,000 502,000 -87.3
Crude oil 122,000 261,000 -53.3 72,000 287,000 -74.9
LNG 1,665,000 1,688,000 -1.4 1,418,000 1,529,000 -7.3
Coal 306,000 158,000 +93.7 352,000 218,000 +61.5
(Reporting by James Topham; Editing by Joseph Radford)