Gas customers to pay compensation for aborted Castor drilling
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 @ 8:52 AM
GAS giant Castor will be compensated to the tune of 1.35 billion euros for being forced to down tools after a series of earthquakes were reported in the Vinaròs (Castellón province) area.
And mains gas customers will pay for it through their bills over the next 30 years.
Spain's central government has passed a bill of law allowing Castor to receive compensation, which will initially come from gas transport company Enagás and will be gradually refunded by the customer between now and the year 2046.
The payback set-up is very similar to that which is in place to cover the State's electrical energy deficit, whereby customers are paying back the government's debt through their bills.
Various banks, including a syndicate formed by Banco Santander, Bankia and La Caixa, have presented bids for the debt, which Enagás is hoping to 'sell'.
The first payment via customers' bills will be made on April 25, 2016, and will affect gas users throughout the country.
Castor has been attempting to exploit a pocket of natural gas found below the subsoil of the sea bed near the coast of the Castellón province, setting up a gas storage warehouse on a rig out in the Mediterranean.
But the building work was stopped in September 2013 as a result of a series of quakes, the greatest of which measured 4.2 on the Richter scale.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com