Footage Shows Pipeline Incident - ‘sabotage’

A new video of the blast-damaged Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline incident, taken by an underwater drone, has indicated that this was undoubtedly an act of sabotage, says a military analyst.

Concept

The Danish television broadcaster, TV2 Bornholm, released the first video of the damaged Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline last week. Hence, shows the destruction caused to the pipeline during the incident in the exclusive economic zone of Denmark.

“undoubtedly an act of sabotage against the gas carrier.”
Jens Wenzel Kristoffersen, Military analyst at the University of Copenhagen

The TV channel obtained permission to film the site of the explosion 20 kilometers away from the southern tip of Bornholm from the Danish Maritime Authority. This comes after Sweden’s Expressen published its own footage of the damage done to the Nord Stream pipeline in the Swedish economic zone.

Following four gas leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September – two in Sweden’s EEZ and two in the Danish territory – the European authorities suspected that the incident could be the result of “deliberate actions” after the Norwegian and Swedish seismic institutes had confirmed that underwater blasts preceded the leaks.

These two pipelines were not in operation at the time of the incident. Particularly, due to Russia shutting Nord Stream 1 at the end of August. Additionally, German chancellor Olaf Scholz halted the process of certifying Stream 2 earlier this year due to the Ukraine crisis.

Incident Response

Once gas leaks stopped at the beginning of October, a damage assessment started by the Switzerland-based Nord Stream AG. They found technogenic craters in early November 2022 at the damaged parts of the Nord Stream gas pipeline during site inspections in the Baltic Sea.

In addition, Swedish prosecutor, Mats Ljungqvist is leading the ongoing preliminary probe at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. Note that he claimed in a statement on 18 November, that the incident is a “gross sabotage.”

Currently, Denmark, Sweden, and the EU have labeled the destruction of the pipelines in late September as sabotage. In the meantime, Putin called this “an act of international terrorism”. Thus, the Russian Prosecutor-General’s office has launched criminal proceedings, as reported by the Russian news agency, TASS.

Source: Off-Shore Energy Biz