Methanex to close Taranaki plant by 2027 as NZ gas supply dwindles

For thirty-two years, a methanol plant in Taranaki has stood as both anchor and emblem of New Zealand's gas-dependent industrial economy. Now, as natural reserves thin and no new supply appears on the horizon, Methanex has chosen to close its Motonui facility by February 2027 — a decision that will cost more than 200 workers their livelihoods and force a region, and a nation, to reckon with the long consequences of energy policy choices made years ago. The closure is not merely a corporate withdrawal; it is a visible settling of debts accumulated across a decade of declining investment, a 2018