Petronas aims to restart No.2 methanol unit in July.

Petrotahlil :State-owned Malaysian refiner Petronas is aiming to restart production at its No.2 methanol unit in Labuan "within this month".

"Production at plant 2 was impacted by a landslide, which affected the gas feed to the plant," the producer said.

The No.2 unit, which can produce 1.6mn t/yr of methanol, was taken off line last week. The producer did not specify the exact date of the shutdown.

But repairs are ongoing at affected parts of the complex and Petronas expects production to resume within this month.

"Rectification work is currently ongoing and progressing as planned. The rectification work is expected to be completed within this month," the producer said.

The outage has led to a rise spot prices in southeast Asia to around $225/t cfr this week from $185/t cfr two weeks ago. The near $50/t jump in prices also comes alongside a planned shutdown at fellow producer Brunei Methanol's unit through July.

Argus assessed spot prices in southeast Asia at $220-230/t cfr on 17 July, up by $20/t from last week's close.

Source : Argus

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