The definitive closure of the Castor gas storage facility adds over 330 million extra to the public bill, raising the total to 1.7 billion. This infrastructure, located off the coast of Castellón, never became operational due to the seismic risk it generated. Now, its dismantling further increases the cost of the failed project, and public money is being used to pay for a work with no direct benefit to citizens.
Miscalculated seismic technology: the error that doomed the project 🛑
The Castor storage facility was designed to inject natural gas into an old oil field, but the exerted pressure reactivated latent geological faults. Between 2013 and 2014, over 500 low-magnitude earthquakes were recorded in the area, forcing operations to halt. Subsequent technical studies confirmed that the geological structure could not withstand the injection operations. The project, initially backed by optimistic reports, demonstrated that the applied seismic engineering was insufficient to foresee the real risk.
The bottomless pit that breathes gas and public money 💸
The most curious thing about Castor is that, although it never stored a single cubic meter of useful gas, it has indeed been a bottomless pit for the public treasury. Now, dismantling it will cost more than building it, like buying a car that won't start and paying more to scrap it than for the new vehicle. Taxpayers, oblivious to this technical brilliance, can take comfort knowing that at least the ground will keep shaking from time to time, as a reminder that public money has a talent for evaporating.