- Denmark and Sweden denounce up to three gas leaks in the waters of the Baltic Sea in the Russian gas pipeline.
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| Mysterious pressure collapse in the Nord Stream gas pipeline causes three leaks in a row in Danish and Swedish waters |
Mysterious pressure collapse in the Nord Stream gas pipeline causes three leaks in a row in Danish and Swedish waters
Russian-owned Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have leaked fuel into the Baltic Sea in recent hours. Denmark has already issued an energy emergency and the Swedish maritime authority has also issued a warning for up to three leaks: two from Nord Stream 1 and one previously detected in the Nord Stream 2 project. Germany asks for clarification of the reasons for these leaks.
“There are two leaks in Nord Stream 1: one in the Swedish economic zone and one in the Danish economic zone. They are very close to each other,” a spokesman for the Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA) told Reuters.
The leaks are located northeast of the Danish island of Bornholm. They were detected after Germany verified a sudden and mysterious drop in the pressure of the Nord Stream 2 from 105 to 7 in a few hours and at night. “We are keeping extra vigilance to make sure no ships get too close to the site,” the Swedish authority said.
The cause of the leaks is unclear. Although suspicions of possible sabotage hover over the three leaks. "No version can be ruled out," the Kremlin spokesman said when asked if it was sabotage. Information from security circles in Germany maintains that there are many indications that the two gas pipelines were deliberately damaged in an act of sabotage, says the daily Tagesspiegel.
On Monday, the Danish authorities had asked ships to stay away from a radius of five nautical miles southeast of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, precisely because of the first gas leak, the one detected in the Nord Stream 2.
Later that day, the operator of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which has been operating at reduced capacity since mid-June and was completely shut down in August, also revealed a pressure drop on both lines of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
The Danish government says "there is no security risk related to the leak outside the ban zone. The incident is not expected to have consequences for the security of Danish gas supply."
No repair deadline
The operator of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines described this Tuesday as "unprecedented" the damage suffered simultaneously by three threads of the two infrastructures that have caused leaks in Danish waters in the Baltic Sea, and said that it is impossible to foresee When will they be restored?
"The damage that occurred simultaneously to three offshore pipeline strands of the Nord Stream system on the same day is unprecedented. It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transportation infrastructure," Nord Stream AG said, with headquarters in Switzerland.
For its part, the Kremlin on Tuesday was "very alarmed" by the damage that three pipes have suffered simultaneously and did not rule out "any version" about the causes of what happened. "No version can be ruled out," said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, at his daily press conference when asked if it was sabotage.
Gas price
The pipeline has been one of the flashpoints in a widening energy war between Europe and Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February that has battered Western economies and sent gas prices soaring.
The Russian-owned pipeline, which was intended to double the volume of gas flowing from Vyborg, Russia, under the Baltic Sea to Germany, had just been completed and filled with 300 million cubic meters of gas when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, I cancel it. shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Analysts indicate that, for the moment, the leak has not had an immediate impact on the gas trade.
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