“Gazprom has decided to pump gas from the second string of Nord Stream 2, which was not damaged by the ruptures. Gas leaks from other strings damaged a week ago have stopped, the company said.
“Gazprom is pumping out natural gas in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline’s string B. It was reported in a message on the company’s official Telegram channel.
“Gazprom said it is “carrying out works to reduce the pressure” in the B string. This will make it safer to inspect the integrity of String B and reduce potential environmental risks from possible gas leaks, the exporter says. If it is decided to start supplying gas via strand B, natural gas will be pumped back into the pipeline after checking the integrity of the system and confirming this possibility by supervisory authorities, the statement said.
“Gazprom” also said that the pressure in the A string of “Nord Stream – 2” and in both strings of the pipeline “Nord Stream – 1” has stabilized and gas leaks that occurred in late September after the damage to the gas pipelines have stopped.
On October 1, the Danish Energy Agency said with reference to Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the project, that stable pressure had been reached in the damaged string of Nord Stream 2 and that there were no more gas leaks. On October 2 it posted a similar message about Nord Stream-1 clarifying that this applied to both damaged branches of the pipeline. According to the version of Swedish TV company SVT, stabilization of pressure and cessation of leaks meant that all the gas from the pipelines went out.
Nord Stream AG, the operator of Nord Stream 1, said on September 26 that there was a sharp drop in pressure in both strings of the pipeline. Then there was also a pressure drop in one of the strings of Nord Stream-2. After Nord Stream AG specified that “unprecedented” damages occurred on one day simultaneously on three strings of two gas pipelines. Bloomberg wrote on September 29 that at least four leaks from the damaged gas pipelines were detected and, according to the Danish authorities, Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 will be completely empty by October 2.
The FSB opened a case on international terrorism over damage to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the pipelines were damaged by premeditated actions which caused considerable economic damage to Russia. Vladimir Putin stated on October 30 that “Anglo-Saxons” were to blame for damage of “North Streams”, who “switched to sabotage” and “actually started to destroy the European energy infrastructure”. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken thought Putin was talking about the United States and allies, and called the Russian president’s accusations absurd.
“Nord Stream 2 was built and filled with gas pending certification of the pipeline by Germany and the European Union. However, the process was first delayed, and after the start of Russia’s “special military operation “* in Ukraine, it was halted.
*According to the requirement of Roskomnadzor, all Russian media are obliged to use only information from official Russian sources when preparing materials about the special operation in eastern Ukraine. We cannot publish materials that refer to the ongoing operation as an “attack,” an “invasion,” or a “declaration of war,” unless this is a direct quote (Article 57 of the Federal Law on Mass Media). In case of violation of the requirement, the media may be fined up to 5 million rubles and the publication may be blocked.