By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA and JAN M. OLSEN
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A sequence of surprising leaks on two pure fuel pipelines working from Russia below the Baltic Sea to Germany triggered issues about sabotage Tuesday, overshadowing the inauguration of a long-awaited pipeline that can deliver Norwegian fuel to Poland to bolster Europe’s power independence from Moscow.
Seismic stations Sweden, Norway and Finland registered two explosions Monday close to the leaks.
Bjorn Lund, a seismologist with Uppsala University who’s a part of Sweden’s nationwide seismic community, mentioned the primary explosion was recorded within the early hours southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm. The latter and stronger blast that evening was northeast of the island and equal to a magnitude-2.3 earthquake.
“We know very well what an underwater blast looks like. And so in this case, there’s no doubt this is not an earthquake,” Lund mentioned.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki referred to as the occasions “an act of sabotage,” whereas Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen mentioned she couldn’t rule it out after three leaks have been detected over the previous day on the Nord Stream 1 and a pair of pipelines, that are crammed with fuel however not delivering the gasoline to Europe. An power standoff over Russia’s battle in Ukraine halted flows on Nord Stream 1 and prevented them from ever beginning within the parallel Nord Stream 2.
Frederiksen, Morawiecki and Polish President Andrzej Duda symbolically opened a valve of a yellow pipe belonging to the Baltic Pipe, a brand new system that can deliver Norway’s fuel throughout Denmark and the Baltic Sea to Poland.
“The era of Russian domination in the gas sphere is coming to an end,” Morawiecki declared. “An era that was marked by blackmail, threats and extortion.”
No official introduced proof of what precipitated the Nord Stream issues, however with mistrust of Russia working excessive, some feared Moscow sabotaged its personal infrastructure out of spite or to warn that pipelines are susceptible to assault. The leaks off the coast of Denmark and Sweden raised the stakes on whether or not power infrastructure in European waters was being focused and resulting in a small bump in pure fuel costs.
“We can clearly see that this is an act of sabotage, an act that probably means a next step of escalation in the situation that we are dealing with in Ukraine,” Morawiecki mentioned.
Anders Puck Nielsen, a researcher with the Center for Maritime Operations on the Royal Danish Defence College, mentioned the timing of the leaks was “conspicuous” given the ceremony for the Baltic Pipe. He mentioned maybe somebody sought “to send a signal that something could happen to the Norwegian gas.”
“The arrow points in the direction of Russia,” Puck Nielsen mentioned. “No one in the West is interested in having any kind of instability in the energy market.”
The extent of the injury means the Nord Stream pipelines are unlikely to have the ability to carry any fuel to Europe this winter even when there was political will to deliver them on-line, analysts on the Eurasia Group mentioned.
“Depending on the scale of the damage, the leaks could even mean a permanent closure of both lines,” analysts Henning Gloystein and Jason Bush wrote.
They famous that undersea pipelines are designed in a means that they aren’t by accident broken and leaks are uncommon.
“Leaks of this size are a severe safety and environmental hazard, especially should Russia not stop pumping gas into the system,” the analysts mentioned.
Puck Nielsen mentioned of attainable sabotage that “technically speaking, this is not difficult. It just requires a boat. It requires some divers that know how to handle explosive devices.”
“But I think if we look at who would actually benefit from disturbances, more chaos on the gas market in Europe, I think there’s basically only one actor right now that actually benefits from more uncertainty, and that is Russia,” he mentioned.
Asked if the leaks might have been attributable to sabotage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned “no version could be excluded.”
“This is an unprecedented situation that requires an urgent investigation. We are extremely worried by this news,” he mentioned in a convention name with reporters.
The Danish and Swedish maritime authorities issued navigation warnings after the leaks within the pipelines have been detected northeast and southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm.
Denmark established a prohibited space to make sure that ships don’t go close to the leaks. Ships might lose buoyancy, and there can also be a threat of ignition above the water and within the air, authorities mentioned.
The Nord Stream pipelines have been on the middle of an power conflict between Europe and Russia for the reason that invasion of Ukraine in late February. Plunging Russian fuel provides have precipitated costs to soar, pressuring governments to assist ease the ache of sky-high power payments for households and companies as winter nears. The disaster additionally has raised fears of rationing and recession.
European nations have struggled to seek out different provides of fuel, which heats properties, generates electrical energy and runs factories. Poland, for instance, was on monitor to free itself of Russian fuel after working for years to safe different sources, together with liquefied pure fuel, or LNG, from the United States and Middle East. Germany, in distinction, is barely now racing to construct LNG terminals.
The Baltic Pipe is a outstanding component within the European Union’s seek for power safety and is to start out bringing Norwegian fuel via Denmark and alongside the Baltic Sea to Poland on Oct. 1.
Simone Tagliapietra, an power knowledgeable with the Bruegel assume tank in Brussels, mentioned the leaks “can’t be a coincidence” and speculated they may have been attributable to Russian sabotage or anti-Russian sabotage.
One risk is Russia signaling it “is breaking forever with Western Europe and Germany” as Poland inaugurates its pipeline with Norway, he mentioned.
“In any case, this is a stark reminder of the exposure to risk of Europe’s gas infrastructure,” Tagliapietra mentioned.
Polish power knowledgeable Andrzej Sikora mentioned he has been warning of the opportunity of assaults on pipeline infrastructure for the reason that building of Nord Stream 1 in 2010. The vital drop in stress attributable to the leaks was clearly not the results of “a bad weld,” mentioned Sikora, head of the Energy Studies Institute assume tank.
He has been urging steps to make sure the safety of the Baltic Pipe, which at one level crosses paths with each Nord Stream pipelines.
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Olsen reported from Copenhagen, Denmark. Associated Press writers David Keyton in Stockholm, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Adam Schreck in Kyiv, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”