Petronas maintains Labuan methanol shutdown

Malaysian state-owned refiner Petronas is maintaining a shutdown of its No.1 methanol unit in Labuan with no restart dates yet been set.

The unit, which can produce 750,000 t/yr of methanol, was taken off line on 13 January because of technical issues.

Petronas's No.2 unit at Labuan, producing 1.65mn t/yr of methanol, is in the process of restarting production following a disruption that started in mid-December 2019. The producer expects this unit will stabilize output by the first week of February.

The shutdowns have seen methanol spot prices in southeast Asia rise in the past two weeks, with Argus last assessing prices on 24 January at $310-330/t cfr southeast Asia.

By Mahua Chakravarty