"Over the years we've had a few major planned shutdowns, but very few unplanned outages. Maybe the old lady is now starting to show her age?" asked one commentator.
"I guess this is understandable since the field is expected to be permanently shut down in four years." The Maui A platform first started commercial production in 1979.
EneryReview.Net yesterday said that Methanex New Zealand, which manufactures up to 2.4 million tonnes of methanol a year from its Taranaki plants, was probably hardest hit by the first shutdown as it is this country's largest gas user and close to the Maui production facilities.
Company public affairs manager Gerry Kennedy today said Methanex had to reduce production by 60% on Wednesday and by 16% on Thursday. "But we came back into full production last night."
Power generator Contact Energy today said it could not fully offset the loss of normal thermal generating capacity, despite firing up expensive diesel-powered plant in Otahuhu, south Auckland, the inefficient old New Plymouth station and increasing hydro generation output.
Genesis Power switched its dual-fuelled Huntly power station entirely to coal when notified of Wednesday's shutdown; first running two 250MW units and then bringing staff back overnight to urgently return a third unit to service, said public affairs manager Donna Baker.
However, as EnergyReview.Net has reported, small industrial, commercial and residential consumers were not affected. "My lights didn't even flicker," said another commentator, who added that gas already in the Maui pipeline, and to a lesser extent the rest of the North Island network, would have been sufficient for small users.
Contact Energy said the Wednesday outage caused its gas-fired stations to cease production over the course of that afternoon. Owing to the Maui gas interruption, Contact also invoked force majeure clauses in contracts for electricity supply to several of its largest customers.
Gas supply from Maui first resumed at approximately 10.15pm on February 5 and Contact's thermal generation was progressively restored from then.
However, during yesterday evening there was a further interruption to Maui gas supply and Contact responded by reducing generation at its gas-fired stations. This time gas supply from Maui was restored relatively quickly, and Contact's thermal plant resumed normal operation later that evening.
Contact said that while these outages had an adverse financial impact on the company, based on information at this point, they were not considered to be material in the context of the company's annual earnings.
Field owner Maui Development Ltd has said it believed the initial shutdown was caused by problems that occurred while testing a safety device on the platform.
Attempts were then made to restart the platform, but neither of the facility's two generators could be started. It said major gas users were kept updated about the situation throughout the day.
