A Quantitative Analysis of the Oil Shortage in Tohoku Region during the First Month after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

In this study, we analyzed the actual amount of oil products transported into Tohoku region during the first month after the Great East Japan Earthquake. We found that (1) the amount of oil products supplied in the Tohoku region during the first two weeks was only 1/3 of the normal demand; (2) the shortage of supply in the first two weeks led to a huge “backlog of demand”; (3) it took four weeks for the backlog to be cleared, and the lost (suppressed) demand during the period was equivalent to the amount of normal demand for seven days.