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The underwater pipes for Nord Stream are made of steel grade DNV grade SAWL 485 (similar to grade X70) for wall thicknesses ranging from 26.8 to 34.4mm and were manufactured by six qualified producers (one in Russia, four in Europe and one in Japan). The pipes are encased in concrete.
Deliberate damage would be no easy matter. Ukraine has already said the sabotage was carried out by the Russians.
“The large-scale gas leak is nothing more than a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression toward the EU,” Kiev’s presidential advisor Mikhaylo Podolyak announced on Twitter.
The trouble with that argument is that Russia would lose all its leverage with Europe if it destroyed its own pipelines. Both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 are owned in a joint project. Gazprom has 51% and four Western partners: PEGI/E.ON and Wintershall Dea have 15.5% each, and French Engie and Dutch Gasunie 9% each.
Ukraine, itself, could be a candidate in an attempt to damage Russia economically, now and in the future. But if that is the case and Ukraine is discovered as the culprit, its relations with Europe and NATO would be tremendously damaged.
Almost every European country has the technical ability to operate offshore with remotely piloted vehicles and some of them have evolved underwater military services (like the US Navy SEALS), which can attack and destroy underwater targets. But which European country would want to do so?
It would be very risky for any European state to carry out a sabotage operation against the two pipelines. First, just as the Russians need Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 intact for their own reasons, the Europeans need them intact for future gas deliveries. In addition, such a move could be regarded by Russia as an act of war.
However, there are a few possible exceptions. Finland is in a serious dispute with Russia that started with Finland’s decision to join NATO. In May, Russia cut off gas supplies to Finland and earlier Russia halted electricity deliveries.
But it is hard to understand why Finland might consider the Nord Stream pipelines as a target for any retaliation. Finland itself has embargoed Russian coal and oil.
Russia also has a very tense relationship with the Baltic States, and any one of them could carry out sabotage acts against the Nord Stream pipelines. However, the fact that this would deprive Europe of gas deliveries in the near future, supposing an end of sanctions, makes this an unlikely move for any country that depends on NATO for security.
Could the US have sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines to remove President Vladimir Putin’s leverage over Europe this winter?If there was substantial fear in Washington that Europe might break consensus on sanctioning Russian over the Ukraine war to save itself from an energy crisis this winter, then there could be logic in such a move – but also huge political, strategic and security risks.The US has become an important energy player sending LNG to Europe in ever-increasing quantities. Europe has been using US-supplied LNG to help fill its storage tanks for the coming winter.Most American deliveries go through France, with Spain and the Netherlands as secondary routes. There are reports that the US is almost at capacity in delivering LNG to Europe and Asia, and natural gas prices in the US could increase significantly if more LNG is shipped.No one can answer the question of who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines. ''If anything, though, the apparent sabotage of the pipelines demonstrates Europe’s irresponsibility in accepting gas from a known enemy – the fact that they got away with it for 37 years, in retrospect, is amazing.''