Methanex Announces Temporary Interruption Of Egypt Operations - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Methanex Corp.(MEOH, MX.TO) announced that its joint venture operation, Egyptian Methanex Methanol Company S.A.E. or EMethanex, has been idled temporarily due to gas availability.

Methanex has been advised by its gas supplier, which is a shareholder in EMethanex, that it will likely not be able to resume gas deliveries before the end of July 2014 due to the priority allocation of available natural gas to meet peak summer electricity demand.

The Egypt plant was temporarily idled on June 12, 2014. It had been anticipated that the plant would resume operations shortly thereafter. However, due to ongoing gas constraints related primarily to increased seasonal electricity demand, the outage has extended.

Methanex noted that it is working with its gas supplier and other stakeholders to minimize the impact of the shutdown.

Methanex is the operator and majority shareholder of EMethanex with 50% ownership. The EMethanex plant, which can produce 1.3 million tonnes of methanol per year, is located in Damietta, Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea.