06/10/2022 16:15 (act 06/10/2022 16:20)
The main gas leak is believed to be man-made ©APA/SWEDISH COAST GUARD
According to the Swedish Prosecutor’s Office, the suspicion of serious sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines has been confirmed. It can now be confirmed that there were detonations in Swedish waters that caused significant damage to the pipelines, the law enforcement agency and the security service said. Swedish on Thursday in Stockholm.
A total of four leaks in the two pipelines – two of them in Swedish waters, two in Danish waters – leaked large amounts of gas continuously for days. Swedish authorities said it was a “very serious incident”. Developments will continue to be closely monitored and everything will be done to ensure Sweden’s safety.
Several states had already assumed that the pipelines had been sabotaged. Seismological institutes in Scandinavia measured magnitudes of 2.3 and 2.1, which the organizations said “likely corresponds to an explosive charge weighing several hundred kilograms.”
During the investigations at the crime scene, pieces were seized that are now being investigated, announced the public prosecutor. It remains to be seen whether there will be a further process. The barriers around the leaks have already been lifted. For several days, an area of five nautical miles (almost nine kilometers) was cordoned off for investigations into navigation and other activities.
Meanwhile, French researchers have estimated that the amount of methane leakage from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline leaks is lower than previous estimates. The Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Agency CEA assumes that about 70,000 tons of methane escaped. Germany’s Federal Environment Agency had previously estimated the amount of emissions at 300,000 tonnes. However, the estimates were based on different bases, CEA researcher Antoine Berchet of the dpa in Paris said on Thursday. “In our model, it’s just looking out of the atmosphere. In the other estimate, it’s the other way around. That’s an estimate of the volume of the pipeline along with the assumption that everything will spill.”
According to Berchet, the fact that researchers in France found a lower level of emissions when they evaluated data from a model of transport of substances in the atmosphere may be due to the fact that methane escaped only in one part of the pipeline and not in the whole the length of the tubes. The estimate is reliable. The model is particularly good at evaluating the first 48 hours. The researchers’ result must now be compared with other estimates and other models.
A total of four subsea leaks were found in Nord Stream pipelines last week, and huge amounts of gas escaped for days. The EU and NATO take on the sabotage.
Berchet considers the climate impact of methane emissions to be quite small. “The release of methane has a very local, albeit very small, warming effect. Globally, the impact is relatively marginal.” The Federal Environment Agency, on the other hand, had warned of significant weather damage from the spills.