Methanex Corporation: Argentina Announces Increase to Natural Gas Export Duty
March 12 2008 - 5:52PM
Marketwired
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA (NASDAQ: MEOH)(SANTIAGO: Methanex)
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The Argentine Government has increased the natural gas export
duty from 45% to 100% of the highest contracted import price of
natural gas into Argentina. Currently, it is expected that this
would represent an export duty of approximately US$7/mmbtu. Our gas
contracts provide that the gas suppliers must pay any duties levied
by the government of Argentina. Methanex has not received official
notification that gas supply would be restored to its plants.
Methanex's Latin America Senior Vice President, Paul Schiodtz,
commented, "We are disappointed in the way the export duties were
implemented as we believe it did not take into consideration the
impact on the economy of southern Chile. We have been operating our
plants at only 30% capacity since June 2007 as a result of the
curtailments of natural gas exports from Argentina. In addition,
there is no excess pipeline capacity available to transport the gas
from southern Argentina to the most populated regions of that
country. Given the announcement of increased duties, we do not
expect to change the operating rate of our plants."
Mr. Schiodtz added, "As we have stated previously, our long term
strategy is to source more gas supply from Chile. In that context,
we expect new exploration projects in the Magallanes Region of
Chile by ENAP and other international oil and gas companies will
continue to be developed with a sense of urgency."
Methanex is a Vancouver-based, publicly traded company engaged
in the worldwide production, distribution and marketing of
methanol. Methanex shares are listed for trading on the Toronto
Stock Exchange in Canada under the trading symbol "MX", on the
NASDAQ Global Market in the United States under the trading symbol
"MEOH" and on the foreign securities market of the Santiago Stock
Exchange in Chile under the trading symbol "Methanex". Methanex can
be visited online at www.methanex.com.
Contacts: Jason Chesko Director, Investor Relations Methanex
Corporation (604) 661-2600 Website: www.methanex.com
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