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Spain's undersea gas storage facility linked to quakes to remain closed

Xinhua, May 4, 2017 Adjust font size:

An undersea gas storage facility built off the east coast of Spain will remain closed for the foreseeable future after a government report confirmed it had been responsible for causing over 500 earth tremors close to the eastern city of Castellon.

The English language version of the El Pais newspaper on Thursday cited Spainish Energy Minister Alvaro Nadal as saying that the Castor Storage plant will remain inoperative.

The site was designed to store gas in an undersea reservoir, but activity was suspended in September 2013 after continued tremors caused minor damage and prompted protests among local residents.

"For the moment, the best thing is to leave things as they are," said Nadal, admitting that "injecting gas was what in all probability" produced the tremors.

Professor Ruben Juanes, one of the report coordinators, explained that injecting gas into the storage area, which is a depleted gas field 1,700 meters below the sea level, had destabilized the Amposta faultline and its branches. Endi