Recovery of Japan's energy use has disrupted

Energy demand has started to decreasing again in Japan.
The country's weekly crude oil processing showed recovery between March and early June this year, following the slump after the serious earthquake in March 2011.

However, the crude oil demand has declined from a year earlier again since the second week of June.
Current decline is more critical damage than last year. Last year's demand was compared to that in 2010 when economy showed steady recovery, but recent figures are compared to the post-earthquake situation.

Monthly electricity supply by Japanese 10 major utility companies also has shown sluggish. The electricity supply rose from a year ago in five consecutive months after February this year, but the growth rate in May was only 0.2%.

Let's have a quick look at more recent figures.
Electricity supply by Tokyo Electric Power Company fell 2.9% on year in June, according to the data released by the company. The supply in the first week of July sunk further to 8.9% from a year ago.
Other nine major companies' supply in June was likely to decrease as well, due to power saving caused by shuts of nuclear power units.

The below chart shows year-on-year growth of monthly electricity supply by TEPCO. Data until April 2012 were provided by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, while May and June numbers are estimated figures calculated by the TEPCO released data.

Nuclear power supply by the Japan's biggest electricity supplier has stopped entirely since April, and the growth of thermal power generation are shrinking throughout May and June.
Liquefied Natural Gas consumption for thermal power generation by TEPCO fell 0.9% on year in May for the first time decline in 15 months. The use of LNG decreased further to 5.7% on year in June.

TEPCO explains that the fewer LNG consumption was caused by maintenance shutdown at thermal power plants prior to the electricity demand period in summer. But the sluggish of regional electricity demand seemed to be an another major factor.

Such slump in electricity supply is match to the sluggish of petroleum demand that was mentioned in the beginning. These tendencies suggest that industrial activities are shrinking in Japan currently.