Following the announcement on the eve of a gas pipeline leak North Stream 2the authorities of Sweden Y Denmark announced on Tuesday the detection of two gas leaks in the North Stream 1.
object of geopolitical tensions in recent months, these two gas pipelines operated by a consortium dependent on the Russian giant Gazprom they are not operational because of the Ukraine war, but they are still full of gas.
Russia talks about sabotage
Russia said it was “extremely concerned” about the detected leaks and added that it does not rule out “any hypothesis”, including sabotage, said the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov.
Denmark agrees: its authorities said it was “hard to imagine an accident” and added that sabotage could not be “excluded.”
Nord Stream, the consortium that operates the pipeline, said that for the time being it has not been able to observe or assess the damage, but acknowledged the exceptional nature of the situation. “An incident in which three pipelines simultaneously experience difficulties is not unusual. the same day,” a spokesman told AFP.
Despite the uncertainty about the cause of the leaks, Denmark immediately put all its energy infrastructure on alert. “Gas pipeline leaks are extremely rare and for this reason we see a reason to increase the level of vigilance,” explained in a statement the director of the Danish Energy AgencyKristoffer Böttzauw.
The Scandinavian country raised the alert in the electricity and gas sector to the orange level, the second highest, and prohibited navigation within a radius of 5 nautical miles (about 9 kilometers) around the leaks and overflight within a radius of one kilometer. .
The consortium that operates the gas pipelines had already announced on Monday night a sudden drop in pressure in the Nord Stream 1. On Tuesday morning, both the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Dan Jørgensen, and the Swedish maritime authorities confirmed two leaks in the duct.
Germany evaluates a “targeted attack”
The German authorities did not comment on the facts for now. But according to a source close to the government quoted by the German newspaper Taggesspiegel “everything speaks against a coincidence.” “We cannot imagine a scenario that is not a targeted attacksaid this source.
According to the Danish authorities, the incidents do not affect the country’s energy supply or the safety or health of residents of the nearby islands of Bornholm and Christiansø, off the coast where the gas leaks occurred.
Coinciding with these incidents, the Danish Prime Minister, Mette FredriksenTogether with his Norwegian and Polish counterparts, he inaugurated the Baltic Pipe, a gas pipeline that will connect Poland and Norway through Denmark.
underwater explosions
Two underwater explosions were recorded before the discovery of the three leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia with Germany, reported Tuesday the Swedish Seismological Institute.
The Swedish National Seismic Network recorded “two massive energy releases” shortly before and near the site of the gas leaks off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, Peter Schmidt, a seismologist for the national network, told AFP.
“We interpret it as coming, with a very high probability, from some kind of detonationSchmidt said, explaining that these energy releases were “very sudden.”
Source: Ambito
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