Methanex, North West Shelf partners finalize gas sales agreement

Dec. 20, 2001
Methanex Australia Pty. Ltd. and participants in the North West Shelf Venture off Australia finalized the gas sales agreement for the methanol plant on the Burrup Peninsula. The partners will supply 200 TJ/day of gas for 25 years, starting in 2005.

By the OGJ Online Staff

HOUSTON, Dec. 20 -- Methanex Australia Pty. Ltd. and participants in the North West Shelf Venture off Australia finalized the gas sales agreement for the methanol plant on the Burrup Peninsula.

The partners will supply 200 TJ/day of gas for 25 years, starting in 2005.

Parent company Methanex Corp., Vancouver, began negotiations with the partners last month (OGJ Online, Nov. 1, 2001).

Methanex is planning to build what it called the world's largest methanol plant on the peninsula in the Pilbara region with a capacity of about 2 million tonnes/year to supply customers in the Asia Pacific region.

Under the agreement, there is a provision for the NWS Venture to supply a further 200 TJ/day should Methanex proceed with plans to double production.

Akos Gyarmathy, the general manager of North West Shelf Gas Pty. Ltd., said the agreement represented another milestone in realizing valuable gas processing industries on the Burrup Peninsula. He added the recent announcement of a second NWS trunkline further underpinned opportunities to supply gas to domestic and industrial markets in Western Australia (OGJ Online, Dec. 12, 2001).

Methanex Corp. said it supplies about a quarter of the world's methanol market and more than 30% of the Asia-Pacific market.

Woodside Energy Ltd. is operator of the North West Shelf Venture. Other partners are BHP Billiton Pty. Ltd., BP Developments Australia Pty. Ltd., TexacoChevron Australia Pty. Ltd., Japan Australia LNG (MIMI) Pty. Ltd., and Shell Development (Australia) Pty. Ltd. Each partner has a 16.67% stake in the project.