UPDATE 1-Nippon Oil sees July crude runs down on weak demand

* Nippon Oil plans to refine 24 pct less crude in July y/y

* 110,000 bpd Mizushima CDU to be shut mid-July to mid-Oct

TOKYO, June 29 (Reuters) - Japan's biggest refiner, Nippon
Oil Corp (5001.T), plans to refine 24 percent less crude in July
than a year earlier, a company executive said on Monday, as
domestic demand for oil products remains sluggish.

Refiners have been slashing output in the world's
third-biggest oil consumer in response to weakening demand amid
the country's worst recession in decades and as its population
ages and increases its use of green energy sources.

The oil firm plans to refine 3.37 million kilolitres of crude
oil in July to meet domestic demand, Senior Vice President
Masahito Nakamura told reporters, which is slightly above earlier
plans to refine 3.30 million kl (670,000 barrels per day) next
month.

Its June crude refining volume for domestic demand was
estimated at 3.00 million kl, down 6 percent from a year earlier,
which is lower than its original plan to refine 3.06 million kl
in the month.

Weak demand has also led Nippon Oil to shut a 110,000
barrels-per-day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at its
Mizushima refinery from mid-July to mid-October, a company
spokesman said.

After the shutdown the CDU will immediately undergo scheduled
maintenance, which is expected to keep the CDU shut for about a
month, the spokesman added.

Nippon Oil, which plans to merge with smaller refiner Nippon
Mining Holdings Inc (5016.T) in April 2010, has a 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, writing by James Topham)