Norway will receive help from Britain, Germany and France to patrol the seas around its oil and gas platforms due to suspicion that sabotage caused leaks in Nord Stream pipelines.
Russia’s Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines burst, leaking gas into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark and Sweden. The EU suspects sabotage caused the damage while Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the US and its allies of blowing up the pipelines.
Now, as Reuters reports, Norway, Europe’s largest gas supplier and a major oil exporter, is deploying its navy, coast guard and air force to protect oil and gas security.
While the country had no indications of direct threats, it considered it prudent to strengthen security.
In the meantime, measurements from ICOS show that an enormous amount of methane gas has been released into the atmosphere. The leak is estimated to equal the size of a whole year’s methane emissions for a city the size of Paris or a country like Denmark.
After the gas leak on the Nord Stream, Sweden and Denmark reported three leaks near Danish island of Bornholm. As a result, Denmark established an exclusion zone taking into consideration the great danger that this situation put shipping.
