The gas leak “is dangerous for maritime traffic”, the Danish maritime authority said in a notice to ships.
The gas pipeline Nord Stream 2which connects Russia to Germany but has not been commissioned, is the victim of a gas leak in the Baltic Sea, the pipeline operator and Danish authorities announced on Monday.
After the announcement by the Danish maritime traffic authority of a gas leak detected on the route of Nord Stream 2, its operator confirmed in a press release sent to AFP that the leak affected the underwater gas pipeline, majority owned by the Russian giant Gazprom.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, built in parallel to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, was intended to double the capacity for importing Russian gas into Germany. The site was almost finished, but the operating permit was blocked by the German government in February, just before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The pipeline had nonetheless beentechnically prepared” and “filled with gas“, explained to AFP Ulrich Lissek, spokesman for the company Nord Stream 2.
At the end of the evening, the operator of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline also reported a drop in pressure in this pipeline. “The reasons are being clarifiedNord Stream AG said in a brief statement on its website. “We do not know the reasons for the drop in pressure“Said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economy in Berlin. But “there is no impact on security of supply. Gas no longer arrives via Nord Stream 1 since Russian deliveries stopped in early September“, she recalled in a press release.
“Dangerous”
The Russian giant Gazprom had drastically reduced its gas deliveries in recent months to Germany through this gas pipeline, before stopping them completely. Germany, which obtained 55% of its supplies from Russia before the war, must therefore obtain supplies elsewhere, at much higher prices, which seriously threatens its economic model.
Concerning Nord Stream 2, the Danish maritime authority specified in a notice to ships that the leak, spotted about twenty kilometers south-east of the Danish island of Bornholm, just outside Danish territorial waters, was “dangerous for maritime traffic“. “Navigation is prohibited within a radius of five nautical miles (about 9 kilometers, editor’s note) around the reported position“, specifies the authority.
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According to unofficial AFP sources, an overflight ban has also been decreed for planes over the area. Just before the announcement of this incident on the Danish side, the German Ministry of the Economy had made it known that it was investigating a “pressure drop» unexpected and fast in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
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