The Castor Project was a natural gas storage facility in Spain that reused an old oil field off the coasts of Tarragona and Castellón. It involved injecting and compressing gas underground which displaced water and was stored in rock cavities. However, the project caused hundreds of minor earthquakes in the region from 2012-2013, up to a magnitude 4.1 quake. This led to widespread criticism from local residents and environmental groups. The project was ultimately shut down in 2014 and the company was fined over 1.3 billion euros due to the seismic activity caused by the gas injection operations.

1. Castor Project
Index
● General description
● What is it?
● Performance
● Seismic Consequences
● Critics
Iria Jiménez y Carlota Ruiz De Conejo
3D

2. General Description
Spain, 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.

3. 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.

4. Performance
It 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)

5. Seismic consequences
On 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.

6. Critics
In 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.