Japan's Idemitsu eyes doubling oil exports
TOKYO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Idemitsu Kosan Co (5019.T), Japan's No. 3 oil refiner, said on Monday it aimed to roughly double its oil product exports in the next few years to compensate for declining domestic demand.
The firm's annual oil exports are likely to hit 2 to 3 million kilolitres (12.6-18.9 million barrels, or about 35,000-52,000 barrels per day) in the "next two or three years," Seiji Fukunaga, Idemitsu director and general manager of the petroleum and coal marketing department, told Reuters.
Idemitsu now forecasts oil exports of 1.5 million kl for the year ending in March, up from 1 million kl the year before.
"In the future, there is a possibility that exports may reach 5 to 6 million kl," he told reporters.
Japanese refiners have been ramping up exports of gas oil and jet fuel amid a steady drop in domestic oil demand as the population peaks and the shift to electricity, gas and more fuel-efficient cars and machinery accelerates.
Domestic oil sales fell 2.4 percent in the year ended March, and government data showed last month that Japan's oil demand fell to its lowest in 19 years for the month of July as surging oil prices hit gasoline and kerosene use hard. [ID:nT86036]
Fukunaga also said Idemitsu was looking to export more products including gasoline to Mexico and other countries possibly on a term basis, after announcing last week its first term contract to sell 200,000 kl per year of diesel to the Central American nation. [ID:nT135565]
Idemitsu is set to increase its oil export capacity to 3 million kl per year by the end of this month, triple the capacity of a year ago. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
