Drone pilot Trond Larsen took the first published photos of the damage to Nord Stream 1. Researcher Ina Holst Pedersen Kvam believes the damage is a testament to technical finesse.
Less than 20 minutes ago
Then the Swedish newspaper The express had to take its own underwater photos of one of the gas pipes broken between Russia and Germany, Norwegian expert in photography with underwater drones, Trond Larsen and the company Blueye Robotics were contacted.
– We waited for a fairly good and safe time before going out on the boat yesterday morning, Larsen tells VG, on the way back to Norway.
With him on the boat were journalists and photographers from the Swedish newspaper and a captain. They left in Swedish economic zoneEconomic zone means the sea zone outside the maritime territory of a country. The right for coastal states to establish 200-mile economic zones came at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea in Geneva in 1975. Within the economic zone, the main rule is that the coastal state has an exclusive right to natural resources, both in the seabed and in the subsoil as well as in the sea itself. The law applies both to biological resources, mainly fish, and to the mineral resources of the seabed and its subsoil, in particular oil and gas. Source: Great Norwegian lexiconwhere the only explosion occurred on Nord Stream 1. The team had contact with the coast guard in Sweden and coast guard planes circled over them, Larsen says.
– We used sonar to find irregularities on the bottom, deployed the drone and searched the areas where we saw deviations. We saw the bottom marks early enough and found the end of the tube.
– Folded and torn
The photos taken by Larsen for Expressen prove this at least 50 meters of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline have disappeared or is buried under the seabed, the newspaper reports.
The Norwegian had to drive the underwater drone to a depth of 80 meters to reach the pipelines, in bad weather and difficult conditions.
– We saw traces on the bottom of the pipes and cracks in the sea floor. Where we found the opening of the tube, there were signs of great strength. It’s steel that has only been bent and torn, says Larsen.
– I pushed the drone into the tube, which was fully open, and no wonder there was clearly extensive damage. There was poor visibility and difficult conditions, so if there was something scattered over a larger area or if something has already been removed during cleaning, I can’t say anything.
– As far as we know, these are the first images that have been published, so there are probably a lot of people who want to get an idea of what they see in the images.
There has been speculation about sabotage and who might be behind it. Many point to Russiawhich in turn rejects the accusations and defines them as “absurd”.
An initial investigation into the damage to Nord Stream 1 and 2 confirms that there is extensive damage to the gas lines and that the damage was caused by powerful explosions, the Danish police wrote in a press release on Tuesday.
– Refinement and technical competence
Ina Holst Pedersen Kvam, researcher at the Section for Naval Power and Management of the Norwegian Naval Academy, studied the new images with interest.
– The video largely documents damage compatible with the main suspicion of recent weeks, that the pipes were exposed to such explosive force, which would hardly be due to an accident.
He specifies that these are pipes with a special construction in steel and reinforced concrete, built to withstand the pressure along the seabed and withstand great stress in order to transport liquid natural gas in the safest way possible.
– Here, 50 meters have been ripped off with tremendous force, and this requires a certain finesse and technical expertise.
Beyond that, however, the video doesn’t help speculate about a particular cause and course of events with a higher degree of probability, he believes.
– Many of the observations, for example signs of indentations in the tube and the like, support several theories at the same time and unfortunately deny very few of them.
The researcher believes that it is impossible to say for sure whether the explosive charges were attached to the outside of the pipes, for example by combat divers or underwater drones, or inside, during construction or maintenance via so-called “pipeline pigs.” “.
– He will still have something to say about when this sabotage was probably prepared, by whom and how it was carried out.
Restricted access
Kvam believes the video shows that Swedish authorities have made a thorough collection of evidence.
– But whenever they refuse to share these results, as they are “too sensitive”, you necessarily have to address only their conclusions until further notice.
– In the meantime, only they can carry out the necessary technical and chemical investigations to confirm which explosives were used, how the detonations were carried out and who presumably is behind it.
Our challenge here at home, says Kvam, is to study the available information as accurately and critically as possible, in order, at worst, to prepare ourselves as effectively as possible for a similar attack elsewhere in the oil industry.
– If we want to take the right measures at the right time to protect a vulnerable and exposed infrastructure in a rather tense political security situation, we should avoid narrowing our focus on concrete threats too soon.
– Unfortunately, the fact is that we still do not have enough information to facilitate a possible course of action for a potential sabotage at the expense of another.
The only thing that can be done moving forward is to contribute analyzes that strengthen and undermine the most relevant assumptions for what lies ahead, he says.
– But that it’s probably not a positive kind, or something we’re particularly prepared for, it’s obvious to me.
