Early this year industry commentators in February said the Methanex appeal was likely, given Mr Aitken's comments at the 2002 NZ Petroleum Conference held at Auckland in February. There the Methanex Asia-Pacific vice-president described the Maui redetermination process as an ill-defined, possibly tortuous path, which was set up to fail.

He then had no comment when asked if Methanex would engage in stalling tactics so it could continue to take its maximum Maui gas allocation, of about 80PJ a year, while any Methanex appeal and likely counter appeals took up to two years to go through the court system.

Yesterday Mr Aitken said that his company had not been planning an appeal three months ago. "This matter has become very real only in the last ten days or so," he said from Auckland.

He denied any delaying tactics, saying Methanex had asked for urgency for the matter before the High Court at Wellington. "So the appeal should be heard in a matter of weeks, not months."

Mr Aitken also denied reports that Methanex was now fighting for its life in New Zealand. "What we are fighting for is a fair outcome. NGC has talked about the necessity of a quick resolution. We want a quick resolution also, but one that is fair and accurate as well."

Methanex had a very strong case to put before the High Court relating to the timing and content of disclosure of information by field owner Maui Development Ltd and the government, which Mr Aitken said had been late and incomplete.

However, the Methanex boss cautioned against the possible dangers of "litigation before the media" and declined to comment further.

MDL has said the Methanex-initiated legal proceedings have no merit and it will be defending its actions.

MDL chairman Lloyd Taylor said that MDL had provided all the requisite data and information required under the Maui Gas Sale and Purchase Contract in the timeframe specified by the contract, for the redetermination process to proceed. "The Maui mining companies (Shell and Todd Energy) see no merit in this action, which will only serve to delay the Maui Contract redetermination process."

A spokesman for Associate Energy Minister Paul Swain has said the government will oppose any court action.

Last November MDL said total expected recoverable Maui reserves, from the developed parts and easily accessible undeveloped parts within the mining licence, were now expected to be only 3800PJ and not the 4085PJ on which the original Maui contract between MDL and the government was based.

MDL later asked for a formal redetermination of the Maui gas contract, which would see a re-allocation of reduced remaining reserves between the big three users, Methanex, NGC and Contact Energy.

Any reduction in entitlements will see Methanex progressively close its Taranaki production facilities, perhaps from as early as next year.