Motunui

Motunui is a settlement in northern Taranaki, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 3 close to the shore of the North Taranaki Bight, six kilometres east of Waitara. Motunui is best known as the location of the Motunui methanol plant, the largest in the world at the time of construction. This was opened in 1986, converting natural gas to methanol and the methanol to synthetic petrol using a process developed by Mobil. 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, and plant produced methanol for export. It ceased production in 2004 as...