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A 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit offshore Fukushima early Tuesday, leading to a coal-fired power plant being shut and the suspension of oil product shipments from northeastern Japan.
The earthquake hit at a depth of 10 km offshore Fukushima in northeastern Japan at 5:59 am local time Tuesday (2059 GMT Monday), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Tsunami warnings were issued for Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures in the northeast, and advisories for the Pacific Coast in Aomori, Iwate, Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures, the JMA added.
The impact from the 7.3 magnitude earthquake is given below, based on company reports as well as information from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. METI information is current as of 9:30 am local time.
COAL:
The 600 MW No. 9 coal-fired Nakoso unit operated by Joban Joint Power Company had an automatic shutdown as a result of the earthquake, and it was not immediately clear when it will be restarted, according to METI.
OIL:
Japan’s largest refiner JX Nippon Oil & Energy on Tuesday suspended truck and waterborne oil product shipments from its 145,000 b/d Sendai refinery in the northeast and the 252,500 b/d Kashima refinery on the east coast, a company official said.
Refining operations were, however, not affected, the official added.
JX also suspended oil product shipments from its Hachinohe terminal in Aomori, northern Japan, and from its Onahama terminal in Fukushima in the northeast, the official said.
Refining operations and oil product shipments at the Chiba facilities of Idemitsu Kosan and Cosmo Oil were unaffected by the earthquake, company officials said.
Oil product shipments from Idemitsu Kosan’s Hachinohe and Shiogama terminals were suspended. Cosmo Oil suspended trucking of oil products from Hachinohe, Shiogama and Onahama terminals, the officials said.
NUCLEAR:
A cooling system for nuclear fuel pool had an automatic shutdown of the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima-2 nuclear power plant in the northeast at around 6:10 am but the system was restarted at 7:47 am local time, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said.
METI reported that there were no other abnormalities at nuclear power plants, including Fukushima-1 and Tohoku Electric’s Onagawa plant, all of which were currently not operating.
GAS:
METI said that no incidents were reported at gas facilities following the earthquake.
METALS:
Operations were suspended at the 260,000 mt/year Onahama copper smelter in Fukushima prefecture early Tuesday following the quake and tsunami warning, a spokesman for Mitsubishi Materials said.
The melting furnace was shut for safety inspections, he added.
–Takeo Kumagai, takeo.kumagai@spglobal.com
–Edited by E Shailaja Nair, shailaja.nair@spglobal.com
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