Swedes do not know if the pipeline breaks damaged power cable
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish officials do not yet know whether an undersea cable running between southern Sweden and Poland was damaged when Nord Stream gas pipelines about 500 meters away ruptured in what Western officials suspect was an act of sabotage.
“Since the cable is not in operation, it cannot be determined whether the cable is damaged in any way,” Per Kvarnefalk, a spokesman for Sweden’s public power transmission network operator, Svenska kraftnat, said late Thursday. “We will therefore carry out tests on the cable using special measuring equipment at the beginning of next week in order to determine whether the cable is fully functional.”
Svenska kraftnat partially owns the roughly 250-kilometer long high-voltage cable that transmits electricity through the Baltic Sea.
Following the suspected sabotage this week of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that transport Russian natural gas to Europe, two leaks occurred off Sweden, including a large one above North Stream 1 and a smaller one above North Stream 2.
The North Stream 2 leak “has decreased, but is still ongoing,” the Swedish coast guard said. However, navigation warnings for ships were increased slightly to 7 nautical miles (13 kilometers or 8 miles) from 5 nautical miles from the incident areas, the coast guard said in a statement.
Two leaks were also reported in Danish waters. The Danish and Swedish governments have described the crimes as the result of “deliberate acts”.
Nordic seismologists registered explosions before the leaks. A first explosion was registered early on Monday southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm. A second, more powerful explosion northeast of the island that night corresponded to a magnitude 2.3 earthquake.
NATO warned on Thursday that it would retaliate against any attack on critical infrastructure in its 30 member states, joining other Western officials in citing sabotage as the likely cause of damage to natural gas pipelines. Denmark is a member of NATO and Sweden is about to join the military alliance.
Russia, which has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the suspected pipeline sabotage, has said that “it looks like a terrorist attack, probably carried out at the state level.”
Security in the energy infrastructure has increased throughout the Nordic region.
Authorities in Norway, a major oil and gas producer, have reported at least six incidents of drone sightings near offshore installations in the North Sea. That prompted Petroleum Safety Authority Norway – the Scandinavian country’s oil safety regulator – on Monday to “call for increased vigilance by all operators and ship owners.” On Wednesday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said there was no concrete threat to Norwegian. offshore oil and gas installations.
Danish daily Ekstra Bladet said a drone was spotted on Wednesday near a Danish offshore oil and gas installation in the North Sea.
Sweden strengthened security around its three nuclear power plants.