Motunui (''large island'' in Māori, from ''Motu Nui'') is a settlement in northern

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

, in the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 3 close to the shore of the North Taranaki Bight, six kilometres east of Waitara.

Industry

Motunui is the location of the Motunui methanol plant, which was the largest in the world at the time of construction. It was opened in 1986 to convert natural gas to

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with the chemical formula (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often ab ...

, then the methanol to synthetic petrol using a process developed by

Mobil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after history of ExxonMobil#merger, it and Mobil merge ...

. The plant was one of the Think Big projects of the Third National Government. The process became uneconomic in the late 1990s as a result of falling oil prices, so the synthetic petrol part of the plant was decommissioned, with petrol production ceasing in April 1999, and the plant instead produced methanol for export. Production of methanol ceased in 2004 as the approaching depletion of the Maui gas field raised gas prices. Methanol train No. 2 was recommissioned in 2008, followed by train No. 1 in 2012. Currently owned and operated by

Methanex Methanex Corporation is a Canadian company that supplies, distributes and markets methanol worldwide. Methanex is the world’s largest producer and supplier of methanol to major international markets in North and South America, Europe, and Asia ...

, the plant's two trains have a total annual production capacity of 2.4 million tonnes of methanol. In 2005, an unmanned production station for the new offshore Pohokura oil/gas field was constructed immediately west of the methanol plant. This began commercial production in September 2006.

August 2004 tornado

On the morning of 15 August 2004, a rare and deadly F3 tornado struck Motunui. The tornado killed two people and injured two others when a farmhouse on Epiha Road was completely demolished. A glass house was damaged, and livestock was killed. The tornado was the strongest ever recorded in New Zealand.

References

{{New Plymouth District New Plymouth Populated places in Taranaki