UPDATE 1-Japan utilities burn record LNG equivalent for April

* All nuclear power plants halted power generation in May
* Gas burn hits 4.56 mln T equivalent, record for April
* Oil burn more than triples to 497,000 bpd in April

(Adds details, tables, links)
TOKYO, May 16 (Reuters) - Japan's 10 utilities consumed 33
percent more natural gas equivalent for electricity generation
in April compared to the same month a year ago to compensate for
the lack of nuclear power, industry data showed on Wednesday.
They burned a record 4.56 million tonnes of liquefied
natu1ral gas (LNG) equivalent last month, data from the
Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan showed.
Consumption of fuel oil and crude oil was up 235 percent at
497,000 barrels per day from a year ago, the data showed.
The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant sparked
by last March's earthquake and tsunami has shredded public faith
in atomic power and prevented the restart of reactors shut for
routine checks.
Japan's nuclear power output has fallen to zero this month
for the first time in 42 years, and three of nine utilities that
have nuclear plants project power shortage this summer.

Nuclear power accounted for about 30 percent of Japan's
electricity demand before the Fukushima crisis.
The utilities generated 70.99 billion kilowatt-hours of
electricity in April, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier,
matching a Reuters' projection.

Following is a table of total energy purchases and
consumption by the utilities for last month, according to the
federation data (volumes of crude, fuel oil and naphtha in
barrels; LNG and coal in tonnes):
Fuel oil and crude are translated to barrels from
kilolitres. (One kilolitre equals about 6.2898 barrels)

Purchase Mar-12 Apr-11 Apr-12 yr/yr %
Coal 4,497,471 3,481,294 3,587,424 3.0
Fuel oil 9,036,549 3,177,582 8,243,242 159.4
Crude 8,123,459 2,825,152 9,111,367 222.5
Total oil 17,160,008 6,002,734 17,354,609 189.1
LNG 5,529,141 3,656,449 4,714,972 28.9
Naphtha - 0 0 n/a

Consumption Mar-12 Apr-11 Apr-12 yr/yr %
Coal 4,420,502 3,256,631 3,393,389 4.2
Fuel oil 8,402,764 1,943,429 7,276,575 274.4
Crude 7,948,433 2,500,560 7,620,816 204.8
Total oil 16,351,197 4,443,989 14,897,391 235.2
LNG 5,039,257 3,417,227 4,556,979 33.4
Naphtha 34 44 0 -100.0

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Nobuhiro Kubo and
Miral Fahmy)