What is known about the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions
investing.comBy Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO — One year on from explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic sea between Russia and Germany, the question of who was behind them is unresolved.
On Sept. 26, 2022, Swedish seismologists registered several blasts, some 17 hours apart off the Danish island of Bornholm that ruptured three out of four lines of the Nord Stream system, sending plumes of methane into atmosphere.
Russia's Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) said about 800 million cubic metres of gas, equivalent to about three months of Danish gas supplies, had escaped. It took several days for the gas to stop leaking.
Since the blasts occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark, both countries are investigating, as well as Germany, where the pipes land.
This is what we know so far:
WHAT ARE NORD STREAM PIPELINES?
The multibillion-dollar infrastructure project was built by Russia's Gazprom in two stages — Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2.
Each stage consists of two concrete-coated steel pipelines of about 1,200km in length and more than 1m in diameter, laying at a depth of around 80-110m.
Nord Stream pipelines had a total capacity of pumping some 110 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per annum, more than a half of Russia's total export capacity.
Gazprom owns 51% of Nord Stream 1, while Germany's E.ON and Wintershall Dea have 15.5% each, while French Engie and Dutch Gasunie hold 9% each in Nord Stream 1.
The Western owners have written off all their investments.
Nord Stream 2, fully owned by Gazprom and operated by Nord Stream 2 AG, was completed in September 2021 at a cost of $11 billion, but was never put into operation because Germany had cancelled Nord Stream 2's certification days before
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