Denmark comments on future of Nord Stream — RT World News
Damaged Russian pipelines will run out of gas by the end of the week, Danish official says
More than half of all the gas in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines has spilled out, Danish Energy Agency chief Kristoffer Boettzauw told reporters on Wednesday. The pipelines suffered a leak on Monday following what many officials suspect was a deliberate attack.
Gas will continue to come out of the pipes until at least the end of the week, Boettzauw said, speaking of a future investigation into the incident. Only after a gas failure will the Danish authorities be able to « try to get out and investigate the cause, and approach the pipes, » he added.
The ongoing emissions are not toxic, the country’s specialists said, according to media reports. The Danish Energy Agency also said the leaks could release the equivalent of a third of Denmark’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Pipeline operators told Danish authorities that the damaged lines contained a total of 778 million standard cubic meters of natural gas.
Earlier, German media warned that the pipes could be rendered permanently unusable if the damage is not repaired before seawater enters the pipes and corrodes them.
German gas pipeline network company Gasunie Deutschland said the damage could be repaired. “There are good teams in place to handle pipeline accidents, there are emergency pipe inventories and experts for onshore and offshore,” its managing director, Jens Schumann, told Reuters, adding that he was « relatively optimistic » on the prospect of repair work.
Pipelines were damaged in international waters in the Swedish and Danish exclusive economic zones, the Danish energy agency said. In Sweden, the investigation of the incidents was taken over by the national security service (SAPO) since it « may be a serious crime which may be at least partially directed against Swedish interests », the agency said in a statement.
SAPO classified the incident as « gross sabotage » and said he did not rule out the idea that « a foreign power is behind. »
Danish authorities have discovered a gas leak on Russian gas pipelines near the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea after the gas pipeline operator reported the loss of pressure in the gas pipelines on Monday.
Swedish and Danish authorities later said there had been a series of underwater explosions. Russian, American and Swedish officials then pointed to a targeted attack as the potential cause of the pipeline leaks. Neither party has officially named any suspects in this incident. Moscow called him « terrorist attack » and said he would convene a meeting of the UN Security Council on the matter.
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