“Unprecedented leaks in the Nord Stream energy pipelines connecting Russia to Germany were likely the result of sabotage, Germany argued Tuesday,” Fox Business reports.
“The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline systems suffered three leaks in a single day on Tuesday, though neither pipeline was operating at the time. The damaged offshore pipelines lay at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.”
German daily newspaper Tagesspiegel reported that “the Nord Stream pipelines may have been damaged by targeted attacks and leaked as a result.”
A German security official told Bloomberg that NS damage appears to be the result of “sabotage.”
The evidence points to a violent act, rather than a technical issue, according to a German security official, who asked not to be identified because the matter is being probed. -Bloomberg
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen noted it was hard to imagine NS gas leaks were caused by a “coincidence.”
Frederiksen didn’t rule out sabotage, but said it was too early to draw conclusions.
Zero Hedge reported:
Pressure drops in the NS gas-pipeline system could be the biggest signal that flows via NS1 might not resume this winter. Germany and surrounding countries are investigating the incident. NS2 cannot impact flows to the EU because the controversial idled conduit was never operational after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz canceled it after Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.
Klaus Mueller, the president of the German energy network regulator, tweeted that the market situation remains “tense,” but Germany and the EU are no longer dependent on NS supplies.
Nord Stream AG issued an outage message that is active until Oct. 26, while the German economy ministry said it’s investigating the incident.
The sudden loss of pressure in the three natural gas pipelines is believed to be a “targeted attack” carried out by either Russia or Ukraine.
Summit News added:
Pressure in the Nord Stream 2 undersea gas pipeline dropped from 300 to 7 bars on Sunday night, followed by a similar occurrence in Nord Stream 1’s on Monday afternoon.
The sudden drop of pressure in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline may also have caused a gas leak near the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, a situation being monitored by Danish authorities.
An anonymous source told Tagesspiegel that German authorities “can’t imagine a scenario that isn’t a targeted attack,” and that their assessment has concluded, “Everything speaks against a coincidence.”
The attack had to be deliberate because it would have been carried out by special forces, navy divers or a submarine which were able to reach the bottom of the sea.
The German government believes Russia could have sabotaged its own pipelines as a “false flag” attack to blame it on Ukraine and drive EU energy prices even higher, an outcome that would pile more pressure on European governments.
The attack could also have been carried out by “Ukraine-affiliated forces” to weaken Russia’s critical infrastructure.
“We are in the process of clarifying the situation here,” a government spokeswoman for the federal ministry of economics told the newspaper. “We don’t currently know what caused the pressure drop.”
Nord Stream AG, the operator of the NS pipeline system, published a statement Tuesday that read, “the destruction that happened within one day at three lines of the Nord Stream pipeline system is unprecedented … and impossible now to estimate the timeframe for restoring operations of the gas shipment infrastructure.”
“On Monday, NS2 gas pipeline and two NS1 lines reported rapid pressure drops, with gas leaks reported by Swedish and Danish authorities in the Baltic Sea near the exclusive economic zone southeast of Bornholm island,” Zero Hedge noted.
*In-depth view of incident area provided by Zero Hedge*
There appears to be no immediate end to the gas leak from NS pipelines, according to the Danish national daily newspaper Berlingske, which quoted Danish Energy Authority.
The energy authority said, “a lot of gas is coming out, so it is not a small crack, it’s a really big hole. Nord Stream leaks can be a deliberate act, but it can also be something else, it’s just extremely rare that something like this happens.”
DANISH ENERGY AUTHORITY: GAS LEAKS FROM NORD STREAM PIPELINES WILL CONTINUE FOR DAYS -NEWSPAPER BERLINGSKE
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 27, 2022
DANISH ENERGY AUTHORITY CHIEF: GAS BUBBLES FROM NORD STREAM 2 LEAK REACHING SURFACE OF THE OCEAN IN AREA MEASURING MORE THAN 100 METRES IN DIAMETER
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 27, 2022
UPDATE – The surface area of the largest Nord Stream gas leak shows a "disturbance" of well over 1 kilometer in diameter, according to the Danish armed forces. pic.twitter.com/u0r4cGjImo
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 27, 2022
Danish Defense Forces published the first images of the gas leaks from the Nord Stream pipeline system near the exclusive economic zone southeast of Bornholm island, according to the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbaldet.
*Images provided by Zero Hedge*
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