BERLIN — European officials on Tuesday launched investigations into three mysterious leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines, built to carry Russian natural gas to Europe, after the system operator reported “unprecedented” damage to the lines in the Baltic Sea.
European officials investigate mysterious leaks in Nord Stream pipelines
“The damage that occurred in one day simultaneously at three lines of offshore pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented,” the company, Nord Stream AG, said in a statement to Russian state news agencies.
European officials suggested that the damage may have been sabotage. “It is hard to imagine that it is accidental,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, according to the Danish newspaper Politiken. “We cannot rule out sabotage, but it is too early to conclude.”
Frederiksen was speaking Tuesday at a ceremony in Goleniow, Poland, for the opening of the new Baltic Pipe, which will carry natural gas to Poland and neighboring countries from Norway through Denmark. The new pipeline is a signature piece of European efforts to find alternative sources for energy previously supplied by Russia.
A senior European defense official and a European environmental official said that the primary, most obvious suspect behind the leaks was Russia. Russian officials had a motivation: sending a message to Europeans about the consequences of getting gas via the new Baltic pipeline. They also have the capability: a robust submersible program.
“No one on the European side of the ocean is thinking this is anything other than Russian sabotage,” the environmental official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal thinking about the leak.
But European officials cautioned that they did not yet have any evidence that would link Russian authorities to the leaks.
Two of the damaged pipes are part of Nord Stream 1, which was previously a major transmission line of Russian natural gas to Germany, Poland and other European nations. Russia decreased and then stopped the flows through Nord Stream 1 earlier this year. The Kremlin blamed technical problems. European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, accused the Kremlin of using fossil fuels to “blackmail” countries supporting Ukraine.
The third leak is part of the newer Nord Stream 2, which Western nations blocked from becoming fully operational after Russia launched its invasion.
The Swedish Seismological Institute (SNSN) registered two distinct blasts in the vicinity of the Danish island of Bornholm on Monday. Automatic monitoring picked up the first blast, which registered the equivalent of an earthquake magnitude of 1.8, at 2:03 a.m. and a second larger blast, registering an equivalent earthquake magnitude of 2.3, came at 7:04 p.m.
“The location of the second blast is five or six kilometers away from where the Swedish Maritime Authority puts the gas leak,” said Björn Lund of the Swedish seismic network. He noted the complexity of the geographic area means there is some deviation in any estimated distance.
SNSN often registers blasts in the area when the Swedish Navy conducts explosive exercises, Lund said, and consequently has a lot of data on the surrounding area.
“That [comparative data] make us even more sure that these are blasts and not earthquakes or landslides or something more natural,” he said. “What we see now is very similar to what we recorded for these Navy blasts.”
The German National Research Center for Geosciences confirmed similar findings to The Post, saying that they are certain that seismic disturbances were not caused by a natural earthquake.
Imagery provided to The Post by Planet Labs, an earth imaging company, confirms methane bubbles appeared on the surface as early as 9 a.m. Monday, following the first recorded blast.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was likely to blame for the new leaks.
“‘Gas leak’ from NS-1 is nothing more that a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression towards EU,” the adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the United States was aware of unverified reports that the leaks may be the result of an “attack or some kind of sabotage.”
“If it is confirmed, that’s clearly in no one’s interest,” he told reporters at the State Department. “What’s critical is that we are working day in day out, both on a short-term basis and a long-term basis, to address energy security for Europe and, for that matter, around the world,” he said.
Blinken said U.S. efforts include surging liquefied natural gas to Europe, increasing U.S. oil production and tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He insisted that the leaks, whatever the cause, would not have a significant impact on Europe’s “energy resilience.”
A spokesman for the European Commission said that although gas supplies were not at risk, officials were concerned about potential environmental damage from the leaks.
“This hasn’t affected the security of supply as yet,” the spokesman, Tim McPhie, said. “Deliveries have been zero on Nord Stream 1 anyway, and Nord Stream 2 is not yet authorized to operate. We are also analyzing the potential impact of these leaks of methane, which is a gas which of course has considerable effects on climate change, and we are in touch with the member states about the potential impact on maritime navigation.”
Henning Gloystein, an energy analyst with the Eurasia group, told The Washington Post, the prospect that the leaks were accidental is “terribly improbable,” given that breaks occurred in at least three places in one area. Most European governments are now putting their energy infrastructure on a heightened alert, he said, because of fears this was the beginning of an asymmetrical attack.
Moreover, the combustible gas leak is dangerous for people and the surrounding environment, he said.
“A massive leak of gas is very methane heavy,” Gloystein stressed, which is “bad for the ocean immediately and will rise into the atmosphere.”
In its statement, the Nord Stream operator said “it is impossible to estimate” when the pipelines will be fixed.
Earlier Tuesday, the Swedish Maritime Authority had issued a warning of two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in Swedish and Danish waters. The warning came shortly after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 pipe was discovered in Danish waters.
Danish and Swedish authorities said they were investigating the leaks and introduced a five-mile radius exclusion zone, near the Danish island of Bornholm, where ships are banned.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday the Russian government was “extremely concerned” about the damage.
“This is very alarming information. There is some damage in the pipe in the Danish economic zone. It is not yet clear what kind,” he told reporters during his daily conference call. “The pressure has dropped considerably. This is an unprecedented situation that needs to be dealt with urgently.”
Peskov also said Russia is not “excluding any options” after a report by the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, suggesting potential sabotage.
The European Commission’s chief spokesman, Eric Mamer, said the cause of the leaks remains unknown. “We believe we do not have the elements in order to determine what is the reason for the leak,” Mamer said. “Obviously, any act of sabotage on any infrastructure is something that we would condemn.”
Ilyushina reported from Riga, Latvia, and Birnbaum from Washington. Kate Brady in Berlin, Beatriz Rios in Brussels and John Hudson in Washington contributed to this report.
Source: WP
