Methanex secures gas supply to restart second New Zealand plant

18 January 2012 07:13  [Source: ICIS news]

(recasts sixth paragraph for clarity)

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Canada’s Methanex plans to restart its second methanol plant at Motunui in New Zealand by the middle of the year, as it will have enough feedstock to run the facility that has been idled since 2004.

The company has signed a 10-year deal with New Zealand-based Todd Energy for the supply of feedstock natural gas, Methanex said in a statement late on Tuesday.

“This agreement underpins higher production and provides for a long-term gas supply to our operations in New Zealand," said Methanex president and CEO Bruce Aitken in the statement.

Methanex has a 1.5m tonne/year methanol capacity at its Motunui site and the deal with Todd Energy will be able to supply up to half of that capacity, it said.

"The quantity of gas supply under this contract potentially allows us to produce about 7.5m tonnes of methanol over the next 10 years, representing multi-billion dollars of revenues,” he said.

Methanex said it expects to incur a cost of $60m (€47m) to restart the second Motunui facility, which will add up to 650,000 tonne/year of incremental methanol capacity to the company.

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By: Pearl Bantillo
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