Power outage shuts Methanex plant in Trinidad

Methanex announced today that its Trinidad operations have been temporarily idled due to an interruption in power supply. 

The facilities have not been receiving electrical power off the national grid since the morning hours of Thursday, November 27.

The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago took its 56-inch cross-island natural gas pipeline out of service to investigate a possible underground leak. Consequently, natural gas supply to a major power generator is not available. 

The company says it understands the outage has impacted most industrial power users on the Point Lisas estate. Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC), the local power company, has advised that they expect national grid power to be returned in 3-5 days.

Methanex says it is taking the necessary steps to manage the situation and ensure a safe and efficient restart of the plant once power is restored.

Methanex is the operator and majority shareholder of the 1.7-million tpy Atlas methanol facility with 63.1% ownership. Methanex also owns 100% of the 900,000-tpy Titan methanol facility. Both plants are located in Point Lisas, Trinidad.