Sweden has found a new leak in a large us undersea pipeline that carries Russian natural gas to the EU, the fourth discovered this week.
Denmark and Sweden reported gas leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines earlier this week.
NATO said the incidents were the result of “deliberate, reckless and irresponsible acts of sabotage”.
Russia has dismissed suggestions that it attacked its own pipeline as “predictable and stupid”.
Instead, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the explosions occurred in “zones controlled by US intelligence”.
Germany’s ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger, told the BBC it was clear a non-state actor could not have been responsible for the incidents – in other words, the country had to be responsible.
The Swedish Coast Guard said it had found a fourth leak on Nord Stream 2, very close to the larger leak found earlier on Nord Stream 1.
The EU has repeatedly accused Russia of using gas supplies as a weapon against the West in retaliation for its support for Ukraine.
It is “very clear” who is behind the damage, Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said without elaborating.
How Russia shuts off gas to Europe
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was “extremely concerned” by the leaks, adding that a deliberate attack could not be ruled out.
EU leaders said any attack on the continent’s energy infrastructure would be met with the “strongest possible response”.
Meanwhile, Norway – which is not in the EU – has announced it will deploy its military to protect oil and gas facilities.
Neither Nord Stream 1 nor 2 are currently carrying gas, although both contain gas.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which consists of two parallel branches, has not transported any gas since late August, when Russia shut it down saying it needed maintenance.
It stretches 1,200 km (745 mi) under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near St. Petersburg to northeastern Germany. Its twin Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was halted after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Seismologists were reporting underwater explosions even before the leaks appeared. The Danish Defense Command released footage of the leaks showing bubbles – the largest measuring 1km in diameter – on the surface of the Baltic Sea.
And Bjorn Lund of Sweden’s National Seismological Center said there was “no doubt that these were explosions”.
However, Andrey Kortunov of the Russian International Affairs Council – a Moscow-based think tank – said the Russian attack made no sense.
“They always point the finger at Russia, but I think because it’s a Russian asset, it wouldn’t make much sense for Russia to do damage to it,” he told BBC Radio 4.
“There are other ways to make life difficult for Europeans. They can simply stop the gas supply without damaging the infrastructure.”
What does this mean for the environment?
The bad news is that methane – the gas in the Nord Stream pipelines – has a strong warming effect on our climate.
During the first 20 years after its release, methane is about 80 times more powerful than CO2—the most common greenhouse gas—at trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere.
At this point, no one is sure how much was leaked.
The good news – so to speak – is that in the context of global emissions, the amount bubbling into the North Sea is likely to be small.
One American scientist estimates that the climate impact of pipeline methane could be equivalent to about 2.5 hours of global CO2 emissions. A Danish energy official said the leak could account for about a third of Denmark’s annual CO2 emissions.
Methane only lasts about ten years in our atmosphere (compared to hundreds of years for CO2), so reducing emissions from the fossil fuel industry is seen as one of the fastest ways to slow the rise in global temperature.