Europe 1 with AFP 6:45 p.m., September 26, 2022

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has suffered a gas leak in the Baltic Sea, the pipeline operator and Danish authorities announced on Monday.

Spotted about twenty kilometers southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, the leak is "dangerous for maritime traffic".

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which links Russia to Germany but has not been commissioned, has suffered a gas leak in the Baltic Sea, the pipeline operator and Danish authorities announced on Monday.

After the announcement by the Danish maritime traffic authority of a gas leak detected on the route of Nord Stream 2, its operator confirmed in a press release sent to AFP that the leak affected the underwater gas pipeline, majority owned by the Russian giant Gazprom.

Spotted about 20 kilometers southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, just outside Danish territorial waters, the leak "is dangerous for maritime traffic", says the Danish maritime authority in a notice to ships .

"Navigation is prohibited within a radius of five nautical miles (about 9 kilometers, editor's note) around the reported position", specifies the authority.

Pipeline opening canceled

According to unofficial AFP sources, an overflight ban has also been decreed for planes over the area.

Just before the announcement of this incident on the Danish side, the German Ministry of Economy had indicated that it was investigating an unforeseen and rapid "pressure drop" in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

>>

READ ALSO

- Russian gas: the Nord Stream gas pipeline restarted after maintenance

The drop in pressure was spotted overnight from Monday to Tuesday, according to the pipeline operator, "and maritime authorities in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Russia were notified immediately."

“Thanks to this cooperation with the maritime authorities, the location of the incident has been identified in the Danish exclusive economic zone southeast of Bornholm,” writes Nord Stream 2.

Although its opening was canceled earlier this year in retaliation for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the pipeline had been "technically prepared" and "filled with gas", Ulrich Lissek told AFP on Monday. -word of the company Nord Stream 2. This controversial pipeline was to strengthen Russian gas export capacities directly to Germany, in addition to the first Nord Stream gas pipeline.

The latter was completely stopped at the beginning of September by Gazprom.