Top Japanese refiner Nippon Oil Corp will refine 5.4 million kilolitres of crude oil in January, up 6 per cent from a year earlier, to meet strong heating oil demand amid cold weather, an official said.

The refining volume is equivalent to 1.10 million barrels per day (bpd).
The January figures are up from its estimated December crude run at 5.1 million kl (1.03 million bpd) of crude oil in December, Naokazu Tsuda, Nippon Oil's executive vice president, told a news conference.
The planned January refining volume was largely in line with figures mentioned by Nippon Oil's chairman last week.
Chairman Fumiaki Watari had said the company would refine 6 percent more crude oil in January than the same month in 2005.
The Nippon Oil group has refining capacity of 1.217 million bpd.