MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Punta Arenas Methanex plans to cut Argentine gas dependency

Metanex plant at Punta Arenas

Canada's Methanex, the world's leading producer of methanol and which has a gigantic plant in Punta Arenas expects to break its Argentina natural gas dependency sometime in the next three years, and concentrate on Chilean supplies, said Bruce Aitken, the company's CEO.

Methanex which has four operational units in the extreme south of Chile depends for its main resource, natural gas, on a 62% provision from Argentina. The rest is supplied by Chiles' government owned oil company ENAP which according to Aitken has recently announced the discovery of natural gas deposits close to the site of the company. Methanex was recently forced to close down one of the four units because of insufficient supply of gas and has plans to invest 320 million US dollars in 2007 and 2008 to help cut Argentine dependency. "Our target in the next two to three years is to depend entirely on Chilean natural gas. I think there are good conditions to uphold such a situation", said Aitken who revealed the company has begun to operate in the off shore gas market of the Santiago Stock Exchange. ENAP exploration wells in the area of Lake Mercedes in Magallanes Region have shown signs of natural gas and oil in commercial volumes. The company continues with seismic trials and further exploration has been scheduled. "ENAP is investing significant funds in the Magallanes Region and I believe this week they announced the discovery of an important deposit of natural gas, very close to our plant in Punta Arenas and the pipelines that feed her", said Aitken. Argentina is Chile's only natural gas supplier but in recent years has privileged domestic demand over exports which have forced Chilean industry to adopt an emergency calendar of activities including the use of far more dear, and contaminating, fuels particularly in metropolitan Santiago.