After a sudden drop in pressure in the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, the Finnish government called a press conference at short notice on Tuesday.
According to unconfirmed Finnish media reports, this is about a possible leak. According to information from the radio station Yle, it should not be an accident. The newspaper Iltalehti even reports that the government and military suspected that Russia had attacked the line.
Nothing was initially confirmed by the government. The operating companies of Balticconnector, Gasgrid from Finland and Elering from Estonia, noticed a sudden drop in pressure in the pipeline early on Sunday morning. Gas transport between the two EU countries was then stopped.
Balticconnector has been operating since 2020
The operators announced investigations. According to reports, the military and secret service were also involved in the investigation. “Due to the unusual pressure drop, it is reasonable to suspect that the cause of the incident was damage to the offshore gas pipeline and a resulting leak,” Gasgrid said. The gas leak was stopped by insulating the section.
President Sauli Niinistö said in the afternoon that it was likely that the damage to both the gas pipeline and a communications cable was due to external influences – but the cause was still unclear.
Balticconnector went into operation at the beginning of 2020. The approximately 150 kilometer long pipeline runs from Inkoo in Finland via the Gulf of Finland to Paldiski in Estonia; the affected offshore section in the sea is a good 77 kilometers long. It is significantly shorter than the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, which were severely damaged in acts of sabotage near the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm around a year ago. It is still unclear who was behind the Nord Stream attacks.