Vancouver-headquartered Methanex announced yesterday that it had secured enough gas to continue operating the 530,000 tonne per year plant for at least another nine months from April 1 when the current supply contracts expire.

Methanex senior vice-president (global marketing and logistics) John Floren said the decision to extend operations was driven by the corporation’s view of worldwide methanol industry balances.

“In part, the continuing delay of new capacity coming onstream and our expectation that some of this new capacity will initially run at low operating rates, supports our view that market fundamentals will remain favourable in 2007,” Floren said.

“Operating our New Zealand plant will help to ensure continued reliable supply to our customers and provide incremental profits for our shareholders.”

Methanex New Zealand public affairs manager Gerry Kennedy said the new nine-month gas supply contract was with one company, as opposed to previous three-monthly contracts that had sometimes been with different suppliers.

Although she declined to specify which company would be supplying the 15 petajoules necessary to run the valley plant at full production until the New Year, the most likely contender is Vector subsidiary NGC.

NGC and Contact Energy have rights to 275PJ of additional Maui right of first refusal (ROFR) gas until 2014 but can on-sell any surplus ROFR gas to third parties.

Contact will need its gas to run its Taranaki and Auckland gas-fired power stations hard during autumn and winter, while NGC does not have that same constraint.

Kennedy also said renewed confidence in the New Zealand gas market, at least in the medium term, meant Methanex NZ could recruit four extra permanent, full-time staff, bumping up total staff numbers in Taranaki to about 100.

The company was advertising for a receptionist, safety coordinator, and mechanical and process engineers to work in the valley.

Methanex NZ still has a small head office in Auckland, the remnants of the former 15-member strong Asia-Pacific marketing and logistics team that relocated to Hong Kong in early 2006.

Kennedy said this was the first time Methanex NZ had taken on more permanent, full-time staff since mothballing the nearby Motunui complex in December 2004.

“When we all shifted to the valley it was then only supposed to be for two years,” she said.

“However, here we are now, entering our third year, and we’ve decided to spend some money on plant maintenance, sprucing this place up, painting and the like.

“We are delighted to have been able to secure this further gas. The more gas that comes into the market the better, as we can go to the market at any time and signs more contracts, if we can secure more gas at attractive terms.”

Last week, Methanex NZ managing director Harvey Weake said he was encouraged by the level of exploration taking place off Taranaki, particularly that planned by operator US independent Pogo Producing Company and its partners in licences PEP 38488-490, which could yield a major gas strike within the next year or so.

Weake said any sizeable gas find could keep the valley plant operating into the next decade or even see the partial restart of the Motunui complex.