By Osamu Tsukimori KAWASAKI, Japan, April 2 (Reuters) - Japan's Nippon Oil Corp is considering an increase in capacity at its 404,000 tonnes per year naphtha cracker in Kawasaki near Tokyo in 2012, company officials involved with the cracker's operations said on Friday. But any expansion will be small, probably only a few percent. If the company makes a formal decision, construction work will take place during the cracker's next planned maintenance, scheduled for around August-September 2012, one source said. Company officials said expansion is under consideration due to strong demand for ethylene from end-users that make value-added products. The company's sole naphtha cracker can also process up to around 40 percent of alternative feedstock to naphtha, such as middle distillates and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), they said. The cracker's operations have been running at 100 percent of capacity for about the past year, after the run rate dipped to approximately 80 percent in January-February 2009 following the global economic downturn, one of the sources said. Nippon Oil and Nippon Mining Holdings set up a new oil and mining giant, JX Holdings Inc, on April 1. Nippon Oil and Nippon Mining, which still operate as separate entities, plan to merge their businesses into three core units -- refining and sales, oil exploration, and metals -- on July 1. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori, editing by Anthony Barker) ((osamu.tsukimori@thomsonreuters.com ; +813 6441 1857; Reuters Messaging: osamu.tsukimori.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: NAPHTHA NIPPON OIL (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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