Exxon Mobil To Restart Kawasaki, Chiba Refineries In Coming Days

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s (XOM) 335,000-barrel-a-day Kawasaki refining complex will restart as early as March 17, with full production expected a few days later, the company said Tuesday in a statement posted on the its website.

"A portion of the refinery is fully operational now," the statement said, adding it will receive gasoline blend stock and other oil products from its refineries in Wakayama and Sakai, which are operating at full capacity.

Tank trucks have been shipping gasoline and diesel from the Kawasaki refinery since March 12, the company said.

Meanwhile, Kyokuto Petroleum Industries Ltd., the Japanese refining joint venture of Exxon Mobil and Mitsui Oil Co. (8031.TO), where major units at its 175,000-barrel-a-day Chiba refinery were shut after the quake, is also preparing to restart, the statement said, without elaborating on the timeframe.

Almost 1.4 million barrels a day of capacity, comprising more than a quarter of Japan's refining capacity, has been offline since Friday's magnitude-9.0 earthquake because of either physical damage, loss of power or as a safety precaution.

-By Wayne Ma, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]