Castor Project

Index

● General description● What is it?● Performance● Seismic Consequences● Critics

Iria Jiménez y Carlota Ruiz De Conejo 3D

General DescriptionSpain, is a country which depends much on others in order to obtain energy such as natural gas. Spain buys the gas from countries which don’t have social stability and it may affect us.To avoid running out of gas, Spain is making some projects to store it for example, the Castor Project.

What is it?The castor project was a subterranean infrastructure, which reused an oil field to store Natural Gas. The project started on May, 2012 in the coasts of Tarragona and Castellón. The company that performed it was Escal UGS Enterprise. It was an unsuccessful project due to the small seismic movements and it was liquidate in 2014.

PerformanceIt consisted of injecting and compressing the gas, this produces a displacement of the water which fills the empty spaces of the storage rock, that is seal by another waterproof rock. This process is carried out in the seasons with less demand (spring and summer)

Seismic consequencesOn April, 2012 there was an earthquake of 3,1 Richter Scale. Since 2013 hundreds of earthquakes have happened in the area where the gas was injected.The 1st of October, there was a seismic movement of 4,1 in the moment magnitude scale. This frightened the villages that were near the deposit, and that is why on the 16th they stopped the gas injection.

CriticsIn February, 2010 the Platform of Defense les Terres del Sénia reported to the European Commission that the Castor Project was making an impact in the environment.In April, 2012 the inhabitants asked for its termination because of: an increase in the project budget, the rise in the natural gas prices and the decrease in the demand.The company (Escal UGS), received a fine of 1350 million euros, due to this there was a lot of controversy because of the promptness.