9/27/2022
The operator of the Nord Stream pipelines built to carry Russian gas to Europe on Tuesday reported “unprecedented” damage to the system, raising suspicions of sabotage after mysterious leaks caused sudden drops in pressure to three underwater lines in the Baltic Sea.
The leaks had no immediate impact on energy supplies to the European Union but raised concerns about serious environmental damage from methane, a greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to climate change.
“The damage that occurred in one day simultaneously at three lines of offshore pipelines of the Nord Stream system are unprecedented,” the company, Nord Stream AG, said in a statement to Russian state news agencies.
No official presented evidence of what caused the Nord Stream problems, but in central Europe, where distrust of Russia runs high, there were fears Moscow sabotaged its own infrastructure out of spite or to warn that all pipelines are vulnerable to attack.
“We can clearly see that this is an act of sabotage, an act that probably means a next step of escalation in the situation that we are dealing with in Ukraine,” Morawiecki said.
The leaks emerged off the coast of Denmark and Sweden, raising the stakes on whether energy infrastructure in European waters was being targeted and leading to a small bump in natural gas prices.
“The arrow points in the direction of Russia,” Puck Nielsen said. “No one in the West is interested in having any kind of instability in the energy market.”
© CopyRights RawNews1st
- Make sure you us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RawNews1st/
