MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine strikers cut gas supply to south Chile methanol plant

Methanex plant in Chile

Canadian company Methanex plant in Chile's southern region of Magallanes has seen natural gas supply fall 10% following an indefinite strike from oil and gas workers union in neighboring Argentina. Methanex is the world's leading producer or methanol.

The decision, involving the production of three oil plants in Argentine Tierra del Fuego is seriously jeopardizing Methanex's output which was already limited because of maintenance work on gas pipelines and the Argentine Cañadon Alfa wells. The oil and gas union's general secretary Luis Soza said that the decision was taken after Argentine authorities failed to satisfy their 325 US dollars monthly wage rise demand after several weeks of negotiations. "We have dialogued more than three months with both businessmen and the Labor Ministry without any satisfactory response or a tangible measure concerning our situation. This motivated us to reject further dialogue," said Soza. Methanex four plants normally receive ten million cubic meters of natural gas per day. "Obviously with less supply, there's less production but we're taking advantage of the situation for our own maintenance work at the plants", said a source from Methanex. "Basically we have a situation similar to that previous to the strike since all technical measures had been taken because we had a planned supply drop for maintenance purposes", added the source. The conflict arises in a time when Chile is reevaluating energy policies as a result of continued difficulties in securing gas supply from its neighbor. Argentina threatened to cut all gas supplies to Chile given its own problems with gas worker unions earlier this month. Chile's government has instructed industries and consumers to remain calm. "We are prepared for whatever type of cut Argentina makes," said Karen Poniachik, the Minister of Mining and Energy