MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

P. Arenas Methanex blames poor performance on Argentina

Canada's Methanex Corportion blamed its poor performance during the third quarter to the serious natural gas restrictions from Argentina which means its main methanol plant in Punta Arenas is working at 25% of its potential.

CEO Bruce Aitken said that the lesser production plus a slight drop in the international price for methanol had a negative impact on the third quarter earnings of the corporation the world's main methanol producer. Third quarter earnings reached 23.6 million US dollars down from 113.2 million for the same period a year ago. "Our greatest disappointment in the third quarter has been the continuous cut in natural gas supply from Argentina to our plants in Chile", said Aitken, in a letter sent to Chile's regulator. "We were hopeful the supply would resume back to normal levels in the third quarter when winter conditions come end and demand for natural gas in Argentina drops; however this has not happened yet and we are forced to continue operating with only one of the four blocks of our main plant in Punta Arenas", said Aitken. Methanex CEO ends the letter saying that "we're in permanent talks with our natural gas suppliers and government authorities to try and solve the situation and continue to be optimistic on the resumption, even partial, of gas from Argentina which would enable us to increase production and supply our markets".