Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday that leaks discovered in Nord Stream’s gas pipelines were apparently caused by deliberate actions and could not have been the result of accidents.
“It is now the authorities’ clear assessment that these are intentional actions. It was not an accident,” says Mette Frederiksen to journalists.
“There is no information yet to indicate who might be behind this act,” Frederiksen added.
This comes after pictures taken of Danish military- showed large amounts of bubbles on the surface of the water originating from the three leaks contained within Swedens and Denmark’s economic zones spreading from 200 to 1,000 meters (656 ft to 0.62 miles) in diameter.
“It’s hard to imagine it’s a coincidence,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, noting that it was “unusual” for the leaks to occur so far apart.
The Swedish National Seismic Network recorded two “massive releases of energy” just before the gas leaks and near their locations off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, Peter Schmidt, a seismologist at Uppsala University told AFP.
“With such a large energy release, there’s not much other than an explosion that could cause it,” he added. “You can see they’re quite sudden. It’s a very sudden release of energy. It’s not a slow collapse of something.”
Russia has previously said it is “extremely concerned” about the leaks. Asked by reporters if it could be an act of sabotage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that at the moment “it is impossible to rule out any options”.
However, Ukraine pointed the finger directly at Moscow, saying the incident was “nothing but a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression against the EU”.
A White House official said the United States would not speculate on the cause but was ready to support European efforts to investigate the leaks.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have been at the center of geopolitical tensions in recent months as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
While the pipelines, operated by a consortium majority-owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom, are not currently operational, they both still contain gas.
One of the Nord Stream 1 leaks occurred in the Danish EEZ and the other in the Swedish EEZ, while the Nord Stream 2 leak was in the Danish EEZ.
A leak was first reported on Nord Stream 2 on Monday.
Denmark’s climate and energy minister Dan Jorgensen confirmed the two Nord Stream 1 leaks in a statement to AFP on Tuesday.
“It is too early to say anything about the causes of the incidents,” the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Supply said in a statement.
Two Danish military ships have been sent to the area, while Sweden called an emergency cabinet meeting to be held on Tuesday evening.
Navigation warnings have been issued for a distance of five nautical miles and a flight altitude of 1,000 meters (3,280 ft).
‘Extremely Rare’
“Gas pipeline leaks are extremely rare and we therefore see a reason to raise the level of preparedness after the incidents we have seen in the last 24 hours,” Kristoffer Bottzauw, director of the Danish Energy Authority, said in a statement.
The European Commission said it was too early to speculate on the causes of the leaks.
“We believe we don’t have the elements to determine what is the cause of the leak. And obviously any act of sabotage on any infrastructure is something that we would condemn,” commission spokesman Eric Mamer told reporters.
A spokesperson for Nord Stream told AFP that they had not been able to assess the damage but admitted that “an incident where three pipes experience difficulties simultaneously on the same day is not common.”
The Danish Energy Agency told the Ritzau news agency that only the area where the gas plume is located will be affected by the leak, but the methane released into the atmosphere has a “climate-damaging effect”.
“Directed Attack”
Nord Stream 2 was built in parallel with the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and was supposed to double the capacity for Russian gas imports to Germany.
But Berlin blocked the recently completed Nord Stream 2 in the days before the war.
Germany, which has been heavily dependent on fossil fuel imports from Russia to meet its energy needs, has since come under acute stress as Moscow’s supplies have dwindled.
Russian energy giant Gazprom gradually reduced the volumes of gas delivered via Nord Stream 1 until it closed the pipeline entirely in late August, blaming Western sanctions for the delay in necessary repairs to the pipeline.
Germany has rejected Gazprom’s technical explanation for the cut, instead accusing Moscow of using energy as a weapon amid tensions over the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the German daily Tagesspiegel reported that the leaks could be the result of “targeted attacks”.
“We cannot imagine a scenario that is not a targeted attack,” a source close to the government and relevant authorities was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
Originally published on France24
Source: sn.dk