German Officials Suspect Nord Stream Pipelines Sabotaged: Reports
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 3 years ago • 16 commentsBy: Kate Duffy (Business Insider)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
German officials reportedly believe the crucial Nord Stream natural-gas pipelines connecting Russia to Europe have been sabotaged.
Der Tagesspiegel, a newspaper in Germany, where the pipelines land from Russia, reported a government source as saying: "We can't imagine a scenario that isn't a targeted attack. Everything speaks against a coincidence."
The Danish Navy has sent an Absalon-class frigate to site of the leaks for monitoring purposes and to warn ships to stay away, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation reported. A no-fly zone is in operation over the affected area, a German government official told Insider.
The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipeline systems are the largest for transporting natural-gas from Russia to Europe. Each system consists of two pipelines.
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the newer Nord Stream 2 system, which at the time was filled with natural-gas but wasn't operational, was suspended. And as the war has dragged on, Russia has gradually crimped supply through Nord Stream 1, which was fully-operational before the invasion.
The Danish Energy Agency said Monday it had discovered a leak in the Nord Stream 2 system near Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic Sea. The Swedish Maritime Authority said leaks had been detected in both Nord Steam 1 and Nord Stream 2 near Bornholm.
On Tuesday, Nord Stream AG, the operator of the pipelines, said: "The destruction that happened within one day at three lines of the Nord Stream pipeline system is unprecedented."
Jakob Hanke Vela, a Germany-based reporter for Politico, tweeted: "Accident highly unlikely, officials in Berlin believe both pipelines have been attacked."
Die Welt, another German publication, reported that the timing of the damage suggested sabotage, and was unlikely to be an accident.
Later Tuesday, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said the situation was "extraordinary" and it was "difficult to imagine" the damage was accidental.
Also later Tuesday, the Kremlin said it couldn't rule out sabotage, per Reuters.
A spokesperson for Germany's economy ministry told Insider it "doesn't participate in speculation." Germany's energy regulator, the Federal Network Agency, said in an email it was in the process of clarifying the situation.
"It seems extremely improbable that the leaks on two different pipelines happen at the same time," Mate usz Kubiak, energy analyst at the Warsaw-based Esper is consultancy, told Politico. "Therefore I think we should assume that it was intentional to create these leaks." Kubiak added that he didn't think it made sense for Ukraine or the West to sabotage the pipelines, per Politico.
Klaus Muller, president of Germany's Federal Network Agency, wrote in a Twitter post Monday the situation was "tense" but Germany and the European Union were no longer dependent on Nord Stream 1.
Since Russia halted gas supplies to Europe in early September, no gas has flowed through Nord Stream 1, the Federal Network Agency said. It added that storage levels in Germany were rising and were around 91% at the time of writing.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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MATEUSZ MORAWIECKI, POLISH PRIME MINISTER: " Today we are also dealing with an act of sabotage. We do not know the details of what happened yet, but we can clearly see that it is an act of sabotage, an act that probably marks the next stage in the escalation of the situation we are dealing with in Ukraine."
Last night Tucker Carlson speculated about the ecological disaster of methane flowing into the Baltic Sea can cause and also about who would sabotage the pipeline:
Where are all the green energy fanatics?
Out being fanatics I guess...
It isn't important to them cause europe isn't dependent on russian gas anymore... This will hurt but no where near what it would have 6 months ago...
The fanatics only care when it pushes their cause forward this doesn't....
I thought they would care about the harm done to the Baltic Sea or the atmosphere?
You would think wouldn't ya, but the only thing they really care about is their political agenda, and that is all the greeners are is political hacks with an agenda...
Apparently so...
Europe doesn’t need dirty Russian fuel! They are just going to cut down their trees to burn for energy. (S)
There is another pipe line believe it or not!
From Norway to Poland:
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/construction-start-gas-pipeline-norway-poland-70485097#:~:text=WARSAW%2C%20Poland%20--%20Construction%20of%20a%20major%20gas,Russian%20gas%2C%20Polish%20President%20Andrzej%20Duda%20said%20Monday.
This photo, taken by a Danish F-16 near Bornholm, shows the disturbance in the water caused by one of the gas leaks in the Baltic Sea .
Image shared by the Danish Armed Forces
Well in the next 5 or 6 days the pipeline will be empty of gas.. And there is really nothing they can do in five or six days to stop it..... What the Danish Navy is doing is trying to keep traffic out of the area, what they don't want is some idiot getting close and flipping a butt off a ship and setting it afire... Now that would be a mega disaster...
Does Brandon have any face to face meetings with Putin schedule?
If so he had better cancel. Putin isn't Corn Pop.
Corn Pop
Only racist democrats think the image of an African American and Biden holding chains is a good story.
Russia has no need to damage the pipelines since they control the supply. Germany (and the rest of Europe) would seem to have an interest in maintaining the pipelines as a hedge. So, whoever did this would appear to have an interest in preventing Germany (and Europe) wavering on the gas embargo.
IMO the environmental activist groups don't have the capability. Ukraine has more interest in continuing the gas embargo than is being said but Ukraine doesn't have the capability, either. Dragging an anchor to grapple the pipelines would require a fairly sizeable ship. A trawler wouldn't have the horsepower. And it's doubtful the ferries operating in the area are large enough, either. It seems more likely the damage was caused by a large commercial vessel or a naval vessel. So, it shouldn't be too difficult to find out who is responsible especially since there is satellite coverage for the area. But we'll never be told.
Single guess would be the US.
We have the most to gain from both Nord Stream pipelines going down.
This has to be one of the most dumbass stunts ever. It will accomplish nothing except ratchet up the nuclear tensions between the US and Russia.
Or China. Or any of a number of Middle Eastern gas producers. Besides it's doubtful the United States could pull off something like this.
While its true that NATO resolve will likely waver over the winter season, destroying Nord Stream would put the United States in an untenable position. The Nord Stream pipelines were a hedge against winter and the United States can't replace that supply. Europe is going to be doing a lot of back biting before the winter is over. The United States may well be in a much weakened position in Europe before spring arrives.
It's more likely this was done to protect a new market for natural gas. Russia is a competitor for OPEC, after all. And, no doubt, China would like to have exclusive access to Russian oil and gas.
The Biden administration hasn't demonstrated the ability to plan that far ahead. Biden still wants a ticker tape parade for ending the war in Afghanistan. And this won't accomplish that. If anything, an attack on the Nord Stream pipelines is an attack on Europe and not an attack on Russia. But Russia doesn't need to do anything like this. Russia could destroy the gas terminals west of St. Petersburg that supplies the pipeline and claim NATO did it. That would be a provocation (even a phony provocation) that NATO had directly attacked Russia and would justify the use of nuclear weapons under Russian doctrine.
Biden wants a unified NATO; Biden doesn't care about oil and gas. And without a hedge against winter, it becomes more difficult for the United States to hold NATO together. Biden will quite likely blame Russia for damaging the Nord Stream pipelines but that would be a phony lie. Putin would gain more from an attack on Russia than from an attack on NATO.
Russia doesn't gain anything from this. Europe doesn't gain anything from this. The United States doesn't gain anything from this. So, who does gain?
The other existing pipelines run through Belarus and Ukraine. Both those countries now have some leverage against both Europe and Russia. Ukraine could have desired this to obtain leverage but Ukraine doesn't have the capability. Ukraine could be trying to use natural gas to draw NATO into a direct confrontation with Russia. That's no different than Stalin's objective for the United States to open a second front and take pressure off the Soviet Union. That's how Soviets do things and Ukraine is still Soviet at heart if not in name.
"NATO said that a series of leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Europe were the result of acts of sabotage and that attacks on its members’ infrastructure would be met with a collective response from the military alliance.
The statement, from the North Atlantic Council, the decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, didn’t provide details or evidence. It also noted that the damage to the pipelines occurred in international waters. But it marks the first time the alliance has formally warned that it would deter and defend against attacks on its members’ critical infrastructure following the now four documented leaks in the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines ."