Japan's TEPCO doubles oil buy in April y/y

TOKYO, May 15 (Reuters) - Japan's biggest utility, Tokyo
Electric Power Co (9501.T) more than doubled its purchases of
crude oil and fuel oil in April from a year earlier, it said on
Thursday.

This reflects the need for the company to burn more oil
after the extended shutdown of its nuclear power plant.

TEPCO said its fuel oil purchases jumped to 651,000
kilolitres (around 4.1 million barrels) in April from 303,000 kl
a year earlier.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant has been shut
indefinitely since an earthquake in July last year, prompting
TEPCO to offset the power loss by working its thermal plants
harder and buying electricity from other firms.

(For details on purchases, see table below)

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

PURCHASES CONSUMPTION
Fuel oil: 651,000 (303,000) 626,000 (402,000)
Crude oil: 318,000 (121,000) 307,000 (237,000)
LNG : 1,809,000 (1,299,000) 1,569,000 (1,408,000)
Coal : 75,000 (199,000) 226,000 (164,000)
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori)