[1/2]A view of the Balticconector pipeline as it is pulled into the sea in Paldiski, Estonia, in an undated Handout photo taken in 2019. ELERING/Handout via Portal/File Photo License rights
- Damage to pipeline and telecommunications cables is being investigated
- Pipeline and cable connect NATO members Finland and Estonia
- Kremlin calls damage “worrying”
- The incident occurred just over a year after the Nord Stream bombings
HELSINKI/BRUSSELS, Oct 11 (Portal) – NATO will discuss damage to a gas pipeline and a data cable between member states Finland and Estonia and launch a “decisive” response if an intentional attack is proven, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Am said Wednesday.
Damage to the Balticconnector pipeline and telecommunications cable was confirmed on Tuesday after one of the two pipeline operators, Finland’s Gasgrid, detected a drop in pressure and a possible leak during a storm on Sunday evening.
Helsinki, which is investigating, said the damage was likely caused by “external activities.” That has fueled concerns about regional energy security and pushed up gas prices.
“Now it’s a matter of finding out what happened and how it could have happened,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels ahead of a meeting of the military alliance.
“If it turns out to be a deliberate attack on NATO-critical infrastructure, that will of course be serious, but there will also be a united and decisive response from NATO.”
Finland’s National Investigation Agency said that “external markings” had been found on the seabed next to the damaged pipeline and that it was examining ship movements in the area at the time of the rupture.
“We are now focusing on the technical investigation of the pipe damage site and the on-site seabed survey,” office manager Robin Lardot told reporters on Wednesday.
Risto Lohi, the FBI’s lead investigator, said at a news conference that anchor damage was not ruled out, adding: “At this point, it appears that the damage was caused by mechanical force and not an explosion.”
Location of the damaged gas pipe
The pipeline runs between Inkoo in Finland and Paldiski in Estonia across the Gulf of Finland, a part of the Baltic Sea that extends east into Russian waters and ends in the port of St. Petersburg.
Balticconnector is operated jointly by the Estonian electricity and gas network operator Elering and the Finnish gas transmission network operator Gasgrid, each of which owns half of the pipeline.
Operators said in a statement that planning and executing repairs to the pipeline would take at least five months and that gas transmissions were unlikely to resume before April.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the incident “disturbing” and told a regular news conference that the September 2022 attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, which cross the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany, had set a dangerous precedent.
These larger gas pipelines were damaged by explosions that authorities say were caused by sabotage.
Henri Vanhanen, a research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said the key question was how NATO would respond if there was evidence that a state actor was behind the new pipeline damage.
“I think the big question in the long term is… Do we have clear potential countermeasures to such (sabotage) activities? “What is the deterrent?” he said.
President Sauli Niinisto and other officials were briefed on Wednesday and preparedness levels at critical infrastructure facilities were increased, the Finnish government said. Meanwhile, Norway and Lithuania have taken measures to tighten the security of onshore energy facilities.
PIPING “PULLED FROM ONE SIDE”
“It is clear to see that this damage was caused by fairly serious violence,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told Portal. Possible causes include “mechanical impact or mechanical destruction.”
According to cable operator Elisa, the pipeline and the telecommunications cable run parallel at a “significant” distance from each other.
The two were damaged “within the same time frame” early Sunday, Finnish investigators said, with the pipeline break believed to have occurred in Finnish waters while the cable break occurred in Estonian waters.
The pipeline, which was coated in concrete for protection, looked as if “someone had torn the side of it,” Estonian naval commander Juri Saska told public broadcaster ERR. “The concrete just cracked or peeled off at the injury site.”
The damage would have no impact on the Finnish electricity system, said grid operator Fingrid. Gas covers 5% of Finland’s energy needs.
The Balticconnector pipeline opened in December 2019 to support the integration of gas markets in the region and give Finland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania greater supply flexibility.
Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, Tom Little in Malmö, Benoit Van Overstraeten in Brussels, Nerijus Adomaitis, Elviira Luoma in Gdansk, Louise Rasmussen in Copenhagen, written by Gwladys Fouche and Niklas Pollard; Edited by Terje Solsvik, Bernadette Baum and Catherine Evans
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