The two major Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Germany are observing significant gas leaks in the Baltic Sea. On Monday, the first leak was detected in Nord Stream 2. On Tuesday, the parallel Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline was affected by two rare gas leaks, according to Swedish and Danish media. 

Two underwater explosions „most likely due to detonations” were recorded near the sites of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipeline leaks shortly before they were detected, the Swedish National Seismic Network (SNSN) announced on Tuesday.

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A first „massive emission of energy” with a magnitude of 1.9 was recorded overnight from Sunday to Monday at 2:03 a.m. southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, followed by another of magnitude 2.3 at 7:04 p.m. Monday evening in the northeast of the island, Peter Schmidt, of the SNSN, told AFP. “We interpret it as coming with the greatest probability from some form of detonation,” he explained.

Copenhagen immediately alerted its energy infrastructure while considering that it was “too early” to comment on the causes of these simultaneous incidents.

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The Danish maritime authorities also specified that the leak spotted about twenty kilometres southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, just outside territorial waters, was „dangerous for maritime traffic” and it prohibits navigation within a radius of five nautical miles (9 kilometres) around the leak zone.

German authorities waited for a while before commenting on the matter. According to a source close to the German government, quoted by Tagesspiegel, “everything speaks against a coincidence”, adding that “[the German government] cannot imagine a scenario that is not a targeted attack”. 

„It’s unusual to have three leaks far apart. Therefore, it’s difficult to imagine that it is accidental„, – Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the media. In her opinion, “sabotage must not be excluded.”

„Today we faced an act of sabotage, we don’t know all the details of what happened, but we see clearly that it’s an act of sabotage, related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine,” Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said during the opening ceremony of the Baltic Pipe which took place almost simultaneously. 

Image: Danish Armed Forces

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen