Sweden and Denmark probe leaks in Nord Stream gas pipelines

Sweden and Denmark are investigating leaks in both Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Europe, warning ships to avoid the area.

Sweden’s maritime administration on Tuesday reported two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline — one each in Swedish and Danish waters — close to the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

That report came hours after Denmark’s energy agency said there was a separate leak on the now defunct Nord Stream 2 pipeline, also close to Bornholm.

The leaks in both pipelines will not affect gas supply to Europe.

Swedish and Danish authorities warned ships to keep clear of the region as they investigate the possible causes of the leaks. The Swedish maritime administration also cautioned that aircraft should keep a “safety altitude” of 1,000 metres in the area.

Denmark’s military warned in June that a Russian warship twice violated its territorial waters north of Bornholm, during an annual democracy festival on the island.

German authorities cancelled Nord Stream 2 just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, but the pipeline had been filled with gas in anticipation of its start-up.

Russia cut supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline this month, intensifying an energy crisis in Europe as countries rush to replace that gas from other sources before the winter.

A new gas pipeline between Norway — now Europe’s biggest supplier of gas — and Poland is due to open on Tuesday.

Nord Stream, the pipeline operator, said late on Monday that its control centre had registered a “pressure drop on both strings” of Nord Stream 1. “The reasons are being investigated,” it added.

The two pipelines have been at the heart of the energy struggles between Europe and Russia. Successive German governments insisted that Nord Stream 2 was purely a commercial enterprise, even as the US and other critics warned that it was part of the Kremlin’s attempts to increase Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz surprised many two days before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by cancelling the approval process for the pipeline, which had been completed but was awaiting certification.

Russia was then accused of weaponising energy supplies as it cut flows through the operational Nord Stream 1 pipeline through the summer, before finally saying in early September it would keep it switched off until the EU lifted sanctions against it.

That move rippled through European energy markets, causing Nordic ministers to warn of a potential Lehman Brothers moment while offering billions of euros in liquidity support to utilities. Germany also nationalised Uniper, its largest importer of gas, which struggled to replace its Russian supplies.