Since Monday, three major leaks have been detected in the two Nord Stream gas pipelines operated by the Russian company Gazprom. This damage was identified off the Danish island of Bornholm. Bubbles, ranging from 200 meters to 1 kilometer in diameter, are visible on the surface, the Danish military announced, impressive supporting images.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was the first to be affected, followed a few hours later by Nord Stream 1. Both follow a nearly parallel route under the Baltic to connect Russia with Germany. The Swedish seismic institute detected two underwater explosions shortly before the leaks appeared.
Objects of geopolitical pulse in recent months, the two oil pipelines operated by a consortium dependent on the Russian giant Gazprom are not operational due to the consequences of the war in Ukraine. But both were still full of gas.
Nord Stream 1.55 billion cubic meters delivered each year
This 1,230 kilometer long gas pipeline connects Vyborg in Russia with Greifswald in Germany, crossing the Baltic Sea. It has been in operation since 2012 and annually supplies Germany with 55 billion cubic meters, which is about half of the national consumption. It also supplies gas to the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.
Ce tracé sous-marin a été voulu por la Russie pour ne plus passer à l’intérieur de l’Europe, comme les terrestrial gazoduc Brotherhood, que passe par l’Ukraine et Yamal Europe, que passe par la Biélorussie et la Pologne pour arriver in Germany. Gazprom had to pay taxes to the crossed countries.
Nord Stream 2, enough to double the annual capacity of the pipeline
Nord Stream 2 is the twin of Norrd Stream 1. This pipeline is 1,234 kilometers long and connects the town of Bolshoi Kuzyomkino, in the Russian region of Saint Petersburg, with Lumbin, a coastal city in northern Germany, across the Sea. Baltic.
It is financed by Gazprom and several European energy companies, including a French one: OMV, Engie, Wintershall Dea, Uniper and Shell. It was launched in 2011 to extend the Nord Stream line and double the annual capacity to 110 billion cubic meters. The construction of the pipeline cost 9,000 million euros.
Since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz announced the suspension of the certification procedure for this gas pipeline. This label is imposed by the German regulator in order to deliver gas to the West. Initially, this process was expected to be completed before spring 2022.
During this suspension, Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and close to Putin, declared on social networks: “Welcome to a new world, where Europeans will soon pay 2,000 euros for 1,000 cubic meters of gas.”
Source: BFM TV
