Sweden’s coast guard says it has discovered another gas leak on the damaged Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The two leaks in Sweden’s economic zone are “close to each other” in the “same sector,” said one official. He did not provide any information as to why the new leak was only discovered now.
The EU and NATO assume sabotage
Swedish media reported that the newly discovered leak was on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. However, the Coast Guard did not initially confirm this information. The other leak involved Nord Stream 1. The three previously identified leaks are located near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Danish and Swedish economic zones. Although the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines are currently not in operation, they are filled with gas.
The Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had named “deliberate actions” as the cause of the leaks on Tuesday evening, not an accident. Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that it was “probably the next escalation level” in the Ukraine conflict. The EU and NATO also assume sabotage. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US government would not speculate about possible backers of a sabotage operation until investigations into the natural gas pipelines were completed.
Security experts suspect Russia to be behind the alleged act of sabotage. “Obviously, it seems a bit absurd to destroy your own pipelines,” said Johannes Peters from the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel. But there are good reasons for this.
One reason is certainly to send a “strong signal” to Europe, especially Germany and Poland, that the same could be done with pipelines that are much more important for security of supply, such as the pipelines from Norway. The equally widespread thesis that the United States could have caused the leaks “to prevent Europe from finding its way back to the Russians in a cold winter,” Peters believes is almost impossible.
Kremlin rejects speculation
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed speculation about Russian involvement in the leaks as “stupid and absurd.” The leaks are “rather problematic” for Moscow, he said. At the request of Russia, the UN Security Council will deal with Nord Stream on Friday, according to the Swedish Foreign Ministry. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US government would not speculate about possible backers of a sabotage operation until investigations into the natural gas pipelines were completed.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced a “robust and united response” on behalf of the 27 member states. Any deliberate disruption to Europe’s energy infrastructure is totally unacceptable, he said. The resulting leaks are probably the “result of a deliberate act”. Any investigation that creates clarity will be supported. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen emphasized that everything will be done to secure the European energy infrastructure.
Half of the gas has already escaped
After the leaks became known, the operating company Nord Stream announced an investigation to determine the damage and clarify the causes of the incident. From Denmark it was said that more than half of the gas in the pipelines had already leaked. “We expect the rest to escape by Sunday,” Danish Energy Agency head Kristoffer Bottzauw said at a press conference.
ww/AR (afp, rtr, dpa)
