Nippon Oil plans Jan crude refining +1 pct y/y

TOKYO Dec 25 (Reuters) - Nippon Oil Corp. 5001.T plans to refine 5.36 million kilolitres of crude oil in January, up 1 percent from a year earlier, a company executive said on Friday.

Its December crude refining volume was estimated at 5.29 million kl, down 2 percent from the year-earlier period, which would be lower than its original plan of 5.33 million kl in the month, due to an unplanned shutdown of Muroran refinery in December, Masahito Nakamura, the company's senior vice president, told reporters.

Nippon Oil, which will merge with Nippon Mining Holdings Inc 5016.T in April 2010, has crude refining capacity of 1.317 million barrels per day, more than a quarter of Japan's total crude refining capacity. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori)