PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, May 11, CMC- Former prime minister Stuart Young, is calling on the Trinidad and Tobago government to confirm whether or not one of the largest global methanol producers, Methanex, plans to shut down its operations here.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Young, a former energy and energy industries minister, said that the closure follows the shutdown of the plants of one of the largest global fertilizer companies, Nutrien.
“These shut downs are due to the lack of confidence in the current government and their change in our gas allocation policy based on ignorance and a lack of understanding of how to properly manage the energy sector,” Young wrote.
He said that liquified natural gas (LNG) ammonia and methanol are cyclical commodities “and to divert gas from our Ammonia and Methanol producers at Pt Lisas to ALNG because of momentarily higher LNG prices is shortsighted and bad policy.
“When these plants close and leave it will result in job losses, lost FOREX earnings, shutting down of service companies and a lack of future investments in Trinidad and Tobago,” Young said, questioning,”questioning whether Energy MInister Dr. Roodal Moonilal is aware of the situation.
Over the last weekend, the Trinidad Guardian newspaper reported Methanex is raising doubts about the company’s continued operation here following years of gas curtailment and recent moves by wholly state-owned National Gas Company (NGC) to increase the price of natural gas to the sector.
The chief executive officer of the Canada-based company, Rich Sumner, said it is considering “all possible outcomes,” including the potential idling of its producing methanol plant or a short-term gas contract.
“We’re considering all possible range of outcomes through those discussions, including a short-term deal as well as the potential to have to idle the plants. It’ll come down to those NGC discussions,” said the Methanex president.
He said in the short term, Trinidad and Tobago “is an extremely tight gas market, with LNG, ammonia and methanol, all operating below the nameplate capacity” and as a result of that tightness, a great deal is going to come down to the commercial discussions between Methanex and NGC.
Sumner said the company is looking longer term in Trinidad and Tobago and what options may arise in the future.
“But we do think any new gas from Venezuela is quite a ways out and also carries risk on whether it can ever flow to methanol economically. So there’s a lot for us to consider there, but, yeah, we would look at short term. If we can’t get the short and the medium term to work together, we’re also having to look at other outcomes out of those discussions (with NGC),” said Sumner.
Methanex invested in two methanol plants in T&T called Atlas and Titan. The company idled its Atlas plant, which it owned 63.1 per cent of, in September 2024 and restarted the Titan facility, which is 100 per cent owned by the Canadian company.
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