En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal says the door re­mains open for Methanex to re­sume op­er­a­tions, even af­ter the com­pa­ny moved to in­def­i­nite­ly idle its Ti­tan methanol plant fol­low­ing the break­down of talks on a new nat­ur­al gas sup­ply agree­ment.

Mooni­lal said ne­go­ti­a­tions be­tween Methanex and the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) over gas pric­ing and al­lo­ca­tion had failed to pro­duce an agree­ment. How­ev­er, he not­ed that the com­pa­ny’s de­ci­sion to pre­serve the Point Lisas fa­cil­i­ty in a “restart-ready” con­di­tion left room for fu­ture op­er­a­tions if gas sup­ply con­di­tions im­prove.

Speak­ing to re­porters out­side the Susamachar Pres­by­ter­ian Church in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day, Mooni­lal said the Gov­ern­ment had tak­en note of Methanex’s an­nounce­ment and would con­tin­ue en­gag­ing the com­pa­ny, along­side oth­er down­stream op­er­a­tors, as it works to strength­en nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion.