Japan: Refining Options and Liberalization Plans

摘要

The reformulation of Japan's petroleum import policy is important to Japan and to the international energy community. The technical and economic factors involved in opening the Japanese market is unknown. Assuming that foreign refiners have the technical capability to meet Japanese product specifications, the prices and volumes that will prove economical to both parties are also little known. Japanese refiners have been investigating the possibility of exporting gasoline and processing crude for China and Malaysia. The study demonstrates that under certain trade policies, Japan could become a significant product exporter. This study's purpose is to investigate the economic efficiency of alternative petroleum supply options, i.e., combining Japan's refining and product imports. An evaluation of the current import program and the technically feasible alternatives will play a major role in a new import policy. For this evaluation, a linear programming (LP) model of Japan's domestic refinery capacity and the petroleum import system was constructed. 3 figs., 23 tabs. (ERA citation 14:017615)