MADRID, 2 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The operator of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, Nord Stream AG, announced on Wednesday that, after an initial inspection, it had found man-made craters in the seabed near a pipeline damaged by the September explosions.
“Technogenic craters with a depth of 3 to 5 meters were found on the seabed at a distance of about 248 meters from each other. The section of the pipe between the craters is destroyed, and the radius of dispersion of the fragments of the pipe is at least 250 meters,” the company detailed in a statement.
Nord Stream AG chartered a vessel last week in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea to start the inspections, which lasted around three to five days. The company has stressed that it will continue to analyze the data after the control.
The Norwegian Government raised the alert level of the Armed Forces on Monday to reinforce surveillance and prevention tasks in the infrastructures and facilities considered key after the explosions suffered in the Nord Stream in September.
The “sabotage” began when a sharp drop in pressure was detected in one of the two pipes of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was not in use. Later, the operator of Nord Stream 1 reported a drop in pressure also in its two pipelines. The authorities ended up discovering a total of four leaks in both pipelines.
The gas pipelines in question run from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea and have a similar capacity. The Nord Stream 2 travels 1,230 kilometers. It has been completed and filled with gas, but gas has never been imported through it, pending approval of its entry into service by the competent authority in Germany, the Federal Network Agency.
