Idemitsu to enter power retailing business

Japan's Idemitsu Kosan said it will enter the electricity retailing business in April as part of its long term-plans to diversify its business portfolio.
The unlisted oil refiner applied to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to become a Power Producer and Supplier, or PPS, which produces or buys electricity and sells it to corporate customers in Japan.

Idemitsu will soon sign a deal with Japanese chemical producer Toray Industries to purchase its surplus electricity and resell it to customers in central Japan, said an Idemitsu spokesman. Under the three-year contract to be signed in the coming months, Idemitsu will regularly purchase 20,000 kW of electricity from Toray's in-house generator located in Nagoya city, central Japan.
"We are in the final phase of talks over the purchase contract with Toray," said the spokesman.

Idemitsu will be the second oil refiner in Japan to tap into the retail power market after Nippon Oil, which applied to the trade ministry to become a PPS in 2003.
Deregulation of Japan's domestic retail power market has allowed the nation's oil refiners, gas utilities and trading companies to enter the power market and sell electricity to industrial and commercial users.