August 17, 2012:

TOKYO - Japan's top oil refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy, said on Friday it has halted operations at a 136,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at the Oita refinery in southwestern Japan on Thursday after a leak of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the unit. The incident did not cause fire or injuries, a company spokeswoman said. The LPG leak was detected from a part of the CDU that separates naphtha and LPG a r ound 1:45 p.m. (0445 GMT) on Thursday, with the CDU halted immediately after that, another company official said. The leak was stopped on Thursday. It remains unclear when the CDU could resume operations pending its own investigation, company officials said. But the shutdown will not be long, one of them added.

There will be no major impact to product shipments from the refinery for the foreseeable future as the plant has sufficient product stockpiles, officials said. The local authorities issued a suspension order on the CDU, and some related secondary units have been also halted for precaution, including a 66,000 bpd vacuum distillation unit, one of the company officials said.

By Reuters