Suspected leaks at two Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea are likely the result of sabotage, officials in Denmark, Germany and Poland have warned, raising concerns about the vulnerability of Europe’s energy infrastructure.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said sabotage cannot be ruled out as the cause of the leaks at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which have been at the center of the energy conflict between Russia and Europe.
“It’s still too early to conclude, but it’s an extraordinary situation,” he said. “There are three leaks, so it’s hard to imagine that it could be accidental.”
He later said there was no heightened military threat to his country. “These are deliberate actions, not an accident,” he added.
German officials expressed concern that the sudden loss of pressure in both pipelines could be the result of a “targeted attack”. They added that Russia’s involvement “cannot be ruled out”, but said Germany was not involved in the investigation being led by Denmark and Sweden.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to their Danish counterparts on Tuesday about the suspected pipeline leaks, which Sullivan described as “apparent sabotage”.
“The US is supporting efforts to investigate and we will continue to work to safeguard Europe’s energy security,” Sullivan later wrote on Twitter.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, also described the attacks as “apparent sabotage” in a statement late Tuesday.
Price said Blinken spoke with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, adding: “The United States remains united with our allies and partners in our commitment to promote European energy security.”
The leaks come as Russian gas supplies to Europe have been cut as part of President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to deter support for Ukraine. The leaks, which will not directly affect Russian gas flows because the pipelines were not operating, coincided with the opening of a pipeline that will deliver Norwegian gas through Denmark to Poland for the first time.
“We don’t know all the details of what happened, but we clearly see that this is an act of sabotage related to the next step in the escalation of the situation in Ukraine,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, Reuters reported .
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on Twitter: “NS-1 ‘gas leak’ is nothing more than a planned terrorist attack by Russia and an act of aggression towards [the] U.S. Russia wants to destabilize [the] economic situation in Europe. . . The best response and investment in security: tanks for Ukraine. Especially the Germans.”
Asked whether sabotage was the cause of the leak, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “no version can be ruled out now,” Russian news agency Interfax reported. “Obviously, the pipe has been damaged in some way. What was the cause, before the results of the investigation come out, no version can be ruled out,” he added.
Sweden’s maritime administration reported two leaks on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea on Tuesday. That report came hours after Denmark’s energy agency said there was a separate leak, also near Bornholm, in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which Germany effectively canceled shortly before the large-scale invasion scale of Ukraine by Russia.
Nord Stream 2 had been filled with Russian gas late last year in preparation for its planned commissioning, while Nord Stream 1 was carrying gas to Germany as recently as earlier this month.
Danish authorities said the gas bubbles in the Baltic Sea were about 1 km in diameter. Sweden and Denmark warned ships to avoid the area.
Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline leak rise to the surface of the Baltic Sea near Bornholm © Danish Defense Command/Handout/Reuters
Sweden’s National Center for Seismology said it had detected two powerful explosions in the area of the gas leaks the day before. “There is no doubt that these were explosions,” Björn Lund, a member of the seismic network, told Swedish state broadcaster SVT.
Terje Aasland, Norway’s oil and energy minister, said that because the leaks resembled sabotage, the country was paying close attention to security, on the day it opened a pipeline to Poland.
Norway’s oil safety authority had warned on Monday that several oil and gas companies had recently complained of unidentified drones near their offshore facilities. In June, a Russian warship twice violated Danish territorial waters near Bornholm.
Energy analysts said it was unclear who would benefit from the leaks at a time when no lines were operational. But some suspected a connection to the new pipeline link. Frederiksen was in Poland on Tuesday for the opening ceremony.
“The Nord Stream 2 leak is very close to the new Baltic pipeline that will bring Norwegian gas to Poland for the first time . . . so there is strong symbolism,” said Tom Marzec-Manser of energy consultancy ICIS . “For EU gas imports, it’s a new dawn for Norway and a twilight for Russia.”
Ukraine has long opposed the Nord Stream pipelines, arguing that they were designed to weaken its position as one of the main conduits for Russian gas to Europe. Russian gas has continued to flow through Ukraine even after the invasion, but Moscow halted supplies through Nord Stream 1 last month, intensifying Europe’s energy crisis.
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James Huckstepp of S&P Global Platts said the leaks added to uncertainty in the energy market. “The probability that Nord Stream 1 will return before the end of the year has essentially dropped from 1 percent to zero percent,” he said. “But there are still concerns about the remaining gas flows to Ukraine and whether they could see reductions later this year.”
Eurasia Group’s Henning Gloystein said the pipelines “are designed to avoid accidental damage”. But he added: “Given that the two lines were still under pressure and each has the capacity to pipe about 165 million cubic meters of methane-heavy gas per day, leaks of this size pose a serious safety and security risk. natural environment”.
Nord Stream, the Swiss-based operator of the pipeline whose majority shareholder is Russian state energy company Gazprom, said the incidents were “unprecedented” but suggested that most of the methane leak it would dissolve in water.
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