Methanex overcomes sabotage to restart Motonui plant

The plant produced the first methanol from Motunui in over four years last weekend.

"We are delighted to have reached this significant milestone," said Methanex NZ managing director, Harvey Weake. "Re-commissioning of the plant took many months to complete but we are looking forward to producing methanol at the site until at least the end of 2009."

During the re-start, police were called in to investigate sabotage in which bolts on an important piece of equipment were loosened and graffiti written on adjacent plant.

Methanex said in May it was spending $70 million restarting one of its methanol units after securing additional natural gas feedstock.

The company will stop production at its nearby 500,000 tonne Waitara plant.

The two plants are regarded as "flexible" production sites and used according to demand and international prices.