INFOGRAPHICS – Mysterious leaks affect Nord Stream 1 and 2, the pipes supposed to send Russian gas to Europe. These gas pipelines are not currently in service but they are full and sabotage is envisaged.
Sabotage or series of highly unusual incidents? The question is being asked as the two major gas pipelines linking Russia to Germany are affected by gas leaks in the Baltic Sea. On Monday, a first leak was detected in Nord Stream 2. On Tuesday, the parallel Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline was in turn affected by two very rare gas leaks, authorities in Denmark and Sweden, two countries that host in their seabed these gas pipelines majority owned by the Russian giant Gazprom. Vast bubbling, 200 to 1,000 meters in diameter, was observed off the Danish island of Bornholm in Danish military images.
Underwater explosions would be “most likely due to detonationsnear the sites of gas pipeline leaks, according to the Swedish Seismic Institute. A first “massive energy emission“with a magnitude of 1.9 was recorded overnight from Sunday to Monday at 2:03 a.m. (00:03 a.m. GMT) southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, then another of magnitude 2.3 at 7:04 p.m. (5:04 p.m. GMT ) on Monday evening in the northeast of the island, explained Peter Schmidt, of the Swedish National Seismic Network. “We interpret it as coming with the greatest probability from a form of detonation“, he explained. The independent Norwegian Seismological Institute (Norsar) confirmed that it had also recorded “a small explosion“early Monday morning and another”more powerfulon Monday night, which he suspects to be deliberate.
Copenhagen immediately placed its energy infrastructure on orange alert, while considering that it was “too earlyto speak about the causes of these simultaneous incidents. He is “hard to imagine“that the three concomitant leaks on the two Nord Stream 1 and 2 submarine gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea are”accidental“said the Danish Prime Minister on Tuesday, saying not”excludea sabotage. “The large-scale gas leak from Nord Stream 1 is nothing more than a planned terrorist attack by Russia and an act of aggression against the European Union“, said on Twitter the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak. According to him, Russiawants to destabilize the economic situation in Europe and sow panic before winteramid fears of an unprecedented energy crisis in Europe in the coming months. For its part, the operator of the pipelines, the Nord Stream consortium, said it could not see or assess the damage, but recognized the exceptional nature of the situation: “an incident in which three pipes simultaneously experience difficulty on the same day is not ordinary.»
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Concrete measures to increase the safety of factories and facilities will be implemented by companies in the sector. The Danish maritime authority also specified that the leak spotted about twenty kilometers south-east of the Danish island of Bornholm, just outside territorial waters, was “dangerous for maritime trafficand it prohibited navigation within five nautical miles (9 kilometers) of the leak area.
The hypothesis of sabotage
Objects of geopolitical arm wrestling in recent months, the two pipelines are not operational because of the consequences of the war in Ukraine. The Nord Stream 2, whose construction was completed in early 2022, has never been put into service. The operation of its twin Nord Stream 1 was stopped at the beginning of September by Gazprom, which interrupted its deliveries, in particular citing technical problems. But both pipes are filled with gas. The sudden occurrence of these incidents raises fears of sabotage. A hypothesis considered by the EU countries concerned and that the Kremlin has taken over on its side.
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“Gas pipeline leaks are extremely rare and therefore we see reason to increase the level of vigilance following the incidents we have witnessed over the past 24 hours.“, explained the director of the Danish Energy Agency, Kristoffer Böttzauw, who promises “in-depth monitoring of Denmark’s critical infrastructure“. A close friend of the German government, quoted by the German daily Taggesspiegel estimate that “everything speaks against a coincidence. We cannot imagine a scenario that is not a targeted attack.” “We are extremely concerned about this news“, affirmed for his part the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov. Asked about the possibility of an act of sabotage, he replied: “No option can be ruled out“. The White House said to itself “readyto support the Europeans, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council announced. “VSThis illustrates the importance of our joint efforts to find alternative gas supplies for Europe“, he added.
The Russian giant Gazprom had drastically reduced its gas deliveries in recent months to Germany through this gas pipeline, before stopping them completely. Germany, which obtained 55% of its supplies from Russia before the war, must therefore obtain supplies elsewhere, at much higher prices. But the current incidents have no impact on the gas supply since no gas has passed through Nord Stream since the beginning of September, a government spokesman said.
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This Tuesday, the Danish Prime Minister inaugurates with her Norwegian and Polish colleagues the Baltic Pipe, a gas pipeline linking Poland to Norway and passing through the territory and waters of the Scandinavian country.
SEE ALSO – “Two underwater explosions” were recorded before Nord Stream 1 and 2 leaks, seismic institute says