Finland’s last gas pipeline in service shut down due to suspicious damage

The manager of the Finnish gas network announced, on Sunday October 8, the closure of the “Balticconnector”, the last gas pipeline in service in Finland since the cessation of Russian imports, due to a suspected leak. Following an investigation, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö announced on Tuesday that he was “likely that the damage caused to the gas pipeline and the telecommunications cable was the result of external activity.” Initially favoring the possibility of an explosion, the Finnish police unit responsible for the investigation now leans in favor of a “mechanical force” to explain the damage caused to the gas pipeline.

The communications cable accompanying the gas pipeline was also damaged, the Estonian Defense Minister said on Tuesday. According to him, the gas pipeline was damaged at a depth of 60 m and the cable at a depth of 70 m. “The scale of the damage is such that it must have been caused by a force, which was not, for example, a diver or a small underwater robot, the damage is more massive”, he stressed. The Estonian Climate Minister, however, assured that there was no danger for the environment and that the effect was not comparable to the damage caused by the destruction of the NordStream gas pipeline a year ago.

For its part, NATO promised Wednesday a “determined response” if the damage caused to the gas pipeline turned out to be the result of “deliberate attack”. “If this is proven to be a deliberate attack on critical NATO infrastructure, then obviously it will be very serious, and it will produce a united and determined response from of NATO”, specified Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the military alliance. The repair work on the gas pipeline will take “at least five months”estimated the manager “Balticconnector” on Wednesday.