Methanex to restart Canadian methanol plant in April

08 September 2010 23:35  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Methanex plans to restart its 470,000 tonne/year methanol plant in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada in April 2011, the company said on Wednesday.

The plant consumes approximately 50,000 MMBtu of natgas daily when running at full capacity but has been idle since 2001, according to Methanex. The company estimated it would cost about $40m (€31.6m) to restart the plant.

Methanex chief executive Bruce Aitken said earlier this year that the plant might be restarted by the middle of 2011 if the company could get natural gas to run it at a cheap enough price.

In a late July conference call, Aitken said the optimum price would be in the $3-$4/MMBtu range. At that price, Aitken said the probability of restarting the plant was "more than 50-50," he said.

The NYMEX front-month contract closed Wednesday at $3.81/MMBtu.

"We believe that the current lower natural gas price environment in North America has made this plant a competitive new supply source for our customers," Aitken said in a statement announcing the restart.

($1 = €0.79)

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By: Lane Kelley
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