Methanex Corporation will be indefinitely idling its Titan methanol plant in Pt Lisas as it said yesterday it was unable to agree to a new natural gas contract.
In a release, the Vancouver, BC, Canada-based company stated, “Methanex Corporation announced today that it has been unable to agree to a new natural gas contract for its Titan methanol plant in Trinidad and Tobago (860,000 tonnes per year capacity) and, as a result, will begin the process of indefinitely idling the facility.”
It stated that Titan’s existing natural gas contract expires in September.
The company employs more than 100 people.
“Methanex will undertake a preservation process at the Titan plant to provide optionality for a future restart should conditions materially improve,” the company added.
The Atlas methanol plant, a joint venture in which Methanex holds a 63.1% economic interest, remains indefinitely idled in a preserved state.
President and chief executive officer of Methanex Corporation Rich Sumner stated, “We have a long history in Trinidad and Tobago with an outstanding organisation that has played an important role in our company’s history. This difficult decision reflects our focus on preserving long-term shareholder value in a challenging environment where the structurally tight gas supply and demand balances in Trinidad and Tobago are making operations commercially unviable.”
He added, “Ahead of this decision, we engaged extensively with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC), and we recognise and appreciate their ongoing efforts to address the country’s gas supply challenges. We will monitor future developments closely, with a view to reassessing conditions and our position over the coming years. We are now focused on supporting our team members during this challenging period and safely idling and preserving the facility.”
Titan is not currently contributing to the company’s adjusted EBITDA and adjusted free cash flow.
“Methanex does not expect to incur material cash costs as a result of this decision and any updates to production or financial guidance will be released with Methanex’s regular second quarter financial communications scheduled for July 28, 2026,” it stated.
Methanex is a Vancouver-based, publicly traded company and is the world’s largest supplier of methanol globally. Methanex shares are listed for trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada under the trading symbol and on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the United States.
The company had idled its Atlas methanol plant in September 2024 and restarted operations at its smaller Titan methanol plant due to a lack of gas.
On March 16, 2020 Methanex idled the Titan plant “in response to the reduction in global manufacturing activity and methanol demand resulting from the global pandemic”.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal said via WhatsApp, “I have noted their press release.”
Attempts to get further comments from him were futile.
The Express also reached out to former prime minister and energy minister Stuart Young and NGC chairman, Gerald Ramdeen, several times but no answer was received up to last night.
Nutrien departure
This is the second international energy player to leave T&T in recent months.
On October 23 last year, Nutrien commenced a controlled shutdown of its Trinidad Nitrogen operations at the Point Lisas facility.
“This shutdown is in response to port access restrictions imposed by Trinidad and Tobago’s National Energy Corporation (NEC) and a lack of reliable and economic natural gas supply that has reduced the free cash flow contribution of the Trinidad Nitrogen operations over an extended period of time. Nutrien will continue to engage with stakeholders and assess options with respect to its operations in Trinidad,” Nutrien stated then.
In May, while Nutrien began the process to sell its T&T assets, Methanex had signalled it was actively weighing its options amid uncertain gas supply negotiations with the National Gas Company (NGC).
Both global energy companies made the statements during their earnings calls with investors on May 7.
Sumner said Methanex was considering “all possible outcomes” in its discussions with NGC, including a short-term arrangement or potential idling of the plant at the time.
“Our gas contract is up in the middle of September. We’re in discussions with the NGC. 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 will come down to those NGC discussions,” he said.
Sumner added that Trinidad remained “an extremely tight gas market”, with the LNG, ammonia and methanol sectors operating below nameplate capacity.
He also noted uncertainty around potential Venezuelan gas supplies.
“But we do think any new gas from Venezuela is quite a ways out and also carries risk on whether it can ever flow economically to methanol,” he said. “There’s a lot for us to consider.”
