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At around 23:36 on March 16 local time, an earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck the waters off Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. As a result, a number of power plants and oil refineries in Japan were forced to shut down. According to foreign media, a spokesperson for Eneos, Japan’s largest oil refiner, said on March 17 that the Sendai refinery in northeastern Japan, with a capacity of 145,000 barrels per day, and the Chiba refinery in Tokyo Bay, with a capacity of 129,000 barrels per day, have been shut down. The spokesperson added that due to the earthquake, the ENEOS Sendai Refinery shut down automatically, while the Chiba Refinery was shut down due to a power outage caused by the quake. In addition, one of the two crude oil distillation units (CDUs) at the ENEOS Kawasaki Refinery has also been shut down. Eneos said it has no idea when the affected facilities will resume operations, and it has not yet determined whether they were damaged. According to a statement by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Soma LNG import terminal operated by Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. also ceased operations due to a power outage. Two earthquakes occurred successively in the waters near Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, at 23:34 local time on the 16th (22:34 Beijing time) and 23:36 local time (22:36 Beijing time). The magnitudes of the quakes were 6.1 and 7.4 respectively. Currently, there are 4 deaths and 97 injuries. In the area under the jurisdiction of Tokyo Electric Power, power outages affected up to about 2.08 million households, but power has been restored to all of them now. Up to approximately 148,000 households in the jurisdiction of Tohoku Electric Power experienced power outages.