The authorities are no longer observing the same impressive bubbling that has been alerting the planet for several days. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which connects Russia to Germany, no longer leaks under the Baltic Sea, a spokesman said on Saturday.
“The water pressure has more or less closed the pipeline, so the gas that is inside cannot get out,” said Ulrich Lissek, spokesperson for Nord Stream 2. “The conclusion is that ‘there is still gas in the pipeline,’ he added, without being able to specify the quantity.
VIDEO. Sabotage of Nord Stream gas pipelines: “It’s not common, but it’s not complicated to do”
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 infrastructures, built to transport Russian gas to Europe, were damaged by underwater explosions off a Danish island in the Baltic Sea on Monday, causing extensive boiling. Information regarding the status of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline leak was not immediately available.
Objects of geopolitical arm wrestling in recent months, the two pipelines operated by a consortium dependent on the Russian giant Gazprom are not operational because of the consequences of the war in Ukraine. But both were still full of gas.
Nord Stream 1 leak weakens
Friday evening, the Swedish coastguard announced that the leaks on Nord Stream 2 showed great signs of weakening due to the exhaustion of the gas contained in the pipes. The diameter of the surface bubbling caused by the leak located in the Swedish exclusive economic zone was now only 20 m wide, ten times less than at the beginning.
The leak on Nord Stream 1, more powerful, had also started to weaken on Friday at the end of the day, with a marine boiling down to 600 m in diameter, against 900 to 1,000 at the start.
The Danish and Swedish authorities had estimated Friday in a letter to the UN Security Council that the leaks should stop by Sunday, with the exhaustion of tens of thousands of tons of gas contained in the gas pipelines.
“All available information indicates that these explosions are the result of a deliberate act”, also wrote Sweden and Denmark, without pointing to a responsible country. The origin of the explosions remains a mystery, however, with Moscow and Washington denying any responsibility. Ukraine has claimed that the leaks were the result of a “planned terrorist attack” by Russia against European countries.