Dramatic undersea images have shown extensive damage to the Russian-controlled Nord Stream 1 pipeline after a blast last month.
Some 50 metres of the 1,200 km pipeline, inaugurated in 2012 to carry Russian gas to Germany, appears to have been destroyed, with sea water now inside the structure.
The tear is visible in video footage gathered by a submarine drone by a Norwegian robotics company and published on Tuesday by Sweden’s Expressen tabloid. The images raise questions about whether the pipeline, 80 metres underwater, will ever be operational.
“Only an extreme force can bend metal that thick in the way we are seeing,” said Mr Trond Larsen, drone operator, to Expressen, saying pipeline parts are either missing or scattered around the seabed.
He said it was possible to see “a very large impact on the seabed around the pipe”.
The pipeline had not transported gas since last August when its Russian operator closed it down for what it said was routine maintenance.
After their own investigation, Danish police say “powerful explosions” blew at least four holes in the 2012 pipeline on September 26th and its newer twin Nord Stream 2.
The latter was completed just before Russian invaded Ukraine but never granted a German permit to go into use.
Danish police said their own inspection of the blast sites suggests the force of the explosions were equal to “several hundred kilos of TNT”.
The cause for the blasts remains unclear. The Kremlin insists that “elementary logic” makes clear that destroying the Russian-controlled pipeline is not in the Russian interest.
Western leaders have yet to accuse Russia of carrying out the attack but have expressed concern about Moscow’s weaponisation of energy.
German, Danish, and Swedish authorities have all been investigating the incident but, according to Der Spiegel magazine, Swedish prosecutors have rejected a joint investigation because of national security fears.
Danish police said it was “still too early to say anything about the framework under which the international cooperation ... will run as it depends on several actors”.
While the leaks were in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone and two of them in the Swedish.
It seems increasingly likely all three countries will carry out their own inquiries but have promised to co-ordinate closely.
Sweden and Denmark have refused demands from Russia to be included in their investigations.
Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom has said it is still “technically possible” to transport gas through one of the four pipes, Nord Stream 2B.
Last week Sweden’s security services said it had concluded an underwater inspection of the sites in its waters and had collected evidence that indicated possible sabotage.
Although the pipelines were not in operation, they contained vast quanties of methane which was released into the Baltic Sea.
Environmental groups have caused the mass, uncontrolled release a disaster for climate goals, while the UN environmental programme has called it the greatest one-off release of methane ever.
