Medco Energy Internasional's 350,000 mt/year methanol plant on Indonesia's Bunyu Island, which was mothballed in 2009 due to natural gas shortage, could be restarted at the end of 2012, a source close to the matter said Wednesday.
Separately, Salamander Energy said in a statement Monday that the South Sembakung gas field in East Kalimantan, an ongoing development which is expected to come on stream in the fourth quarter of 2012, will supply 25,000 Mcf/d of feedstock to the Bunyu Island methanol plant.
According to the source, Medco -- Indonesia's largest private domestic oil and gas company -- issued a tender seeking an operator for the methanol plant. The tender was expected to be awarded by the middle of this year, but no announcement has been made so far, the source added.
The plant was shut on February 1, 2009. At the time, sources close to the company said that it might be restarted if new gas reserves were found, Platts reported earlier.
The plant was first started up in April 1997, but was operating at less than 50% of capacity from the fourth quarter of 2005 due to a gas shortage. It previously received natural gas feedstock from the Tarakan block, but this was later diverted for use as fuel for electricity generation.
Currently, there are three main methanol producers in Southeast Asia. Malaysia's state-owned Petronas has a 600,000 mt/year plant and a 1.7 million mt/year plant in Labuan. Brunei Methanol Company has an 850,000 mt/year plant in the Sungai Liang Industrial Park in Brunei and Kaltim Methanol Industry has a 660,000 mt/year unit in Bontang, Indonesia.
