Enagás has now embarked upon the final phase of hibernation of the Castor natural gas underground storage facility, on schedule and pursuant to the government's stipulations in Royal Legislative Decree 13/2014 of 3 October adopting urgent measures relating to the gas system and the ownership of nuclear power plants.
The purpose of the hibernation process is to place the infrastructure in a situation of maximum safety, with no gas at the platform, in the gasline and at on-land facilities. From the outset, at all times Enagás' priority concern has been and remains the safety of people, property and the environment. The first measure taken by Enagás was to close the wells' valves. Throughout the entire process, the company has not carried out and will not carry out any natural gas injection or extraction operations at the storage facility.
As stipulated in the Royal Legislative Decree, securing the facility consisted of a number of phases: a preliminary survey of the asset was performed, the hibernation plan was drawn up, and a start was made on the process in March 2015. The hibernation process is now coming to an end, as maintenance work is carried out on the facility.
Enagás has commissioned the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to conduct a survey as a basis for the government to take a decision concerning the future of the facility. The MIT considers the survey will have been completed by the second half of 2016.
