MADRID, (PNA/Xinhua) — Spanish Minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism Jose Manuel Soria admitted Thursday that there could be a “direct relationship” between an undersea storage facility for natural gas and a series of earth tremors off the east coast of Spain.
A number of 23 tremors, the strongest measuring 4.1 magnitude on the Richter Scale, were registered in the Gulf of Valencia off the coast of the city of Castellon on Wednesday night.
The tremor of 4.1 magnitude happened at 23:30 local time, shortly after another shock of 3.9 points was registered at around 23:00, while the remaining tremors were between 1.8 and 2.9 magnitude, with the last registered at 5:09 a.m. on Thursday morning.
These tremors were all close to the underground natural gas storage facility, Castor, which is situated just off the coast.
Soria admitted the Castor facility could be a factor in provoking the tremors, although “there is still no scientific proof” that the injection of gas into the facility is the cause of the quakes.
The Castor project has seen the investment of 1.2 billion euros (about 1.63 U.S. dollars) in order to attempt to turn a former oil well 1,750 meters below sea level into a storage facility for natural gas.
The project aims to be able to supply around a third of the demand for natural gas for a period of 50 days.
A possible relation between the Castor facility and the seismic activity is currently being investigated by Spain’s National Geographical Institute, who have been at work since Sept. 26, 13 days after an injection of gas into the facility was followed by hundreds of low intensity earth tremors in the area.
It is suspected these are “induced tremors” provoked directly by the Castor project, although that has to be confirmed and any possible risks analyzed.
The tremor of 4.2 magnitude on Wednesday caused the Valencian regional government to put its “seismic risk” response plan into operation.