Nord Stream pipelines: Report claims US blew up in 2022. 10 points
- The controversial pipeline is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, whose majority shareholder is the Russian state-owned company Gazprom
- The 1,224 km-long lines run under the Baltic Sea starting from near St Petersburg in Russia and Lubmin in eastern Germany.
A report has claimed that the US blew up Nord Stream gas pipelines with Norway's help in September 2022 in a covert operation. In a report by American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the bombing of the undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines was carried out by the US. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hersh noted that the decision to damage the pipelines occurred to prevent Russia from considerably boosting its income amid the war with Ukraine. Besides, the US wanted to reduce the dependence of Western Europe, particularly Germany, on inexpensive Russian gas, the report said.
"On September 26, 2022, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane made a seemingly routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then on to Nord Stream 1. A few hours later, the high-powered C4 explosives were triggered and three of the four pipelines were put out of commission. Within a few minutes, pools of methane gas that remained in the shuttered pipelines could be seen spreading on the water's surface and the world learned that something irreversible had taken place," said the US journalist.
However, White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson has dismissed the claims made by the journalist. The US White House has termed it 'utterly false and complete fiction'. Norway's foreign ministry said the allegations were "nonsense". Nord Strem gas pipeline: Here's all you need to know 1. The pipelines have been at the centre of the geopolitical tensions as Russia has cut gas supplies to Europe as a retaliatory move against Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
2. Nord Stream's twin pipeline system has the capacity to transport up to 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia to Europe through the Baltic Sea. The 1,224 km-long lines run under the Baltic Sea starting from near S.t Petersburg in Russia and Lubmin in eastern Germany.
3. The Nord Stream 1 subsea pipeline, having two lines running alongside one another, has been operational since 2011, and is the largest single supply route for Russian gas to Europe.
4. The construction of Nord Stream 2, which also has two parallel lines along the first one, was completed in 2021, but it never began commercial operation as Germany suspended approval.
5. The controversial pipeline is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, whose majority shareholder is the Russian state-owned company Gazprom.
6. In September last year, the operator Norway and Denmark reported four leaks in both pipelines. Huge gas bubbles rose to the surface of the sea. The pipelines have been closed indefinitely now.
7. While the leaks were in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone, and two of them were in Sweden.
8. Investigators from Sweden and Denmark have said the ruptures were a result of sabotage, but have not said who they believe was responsible.
9. Russia, without providing evidence, has repeatedly said the West was behind the blasts.
10. Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused "Anglo-Saxon" powers of blowing up the pipelines, a Kremlin-designed project to circumvent Ukraine in exporting its gas under the Baltic Sea directly to western Europe.
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First Published:11 Feb 2023, 06:51 AM IST
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