Denmark confirms three leaks in Nord Stream gas pipelines

COPENHAGEN, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Three leaks have now been detected on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the vicinity of the Danish island of Bornholm, the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) said in a press release on Tuesday.

On a visit to Poland to attend the opening ceremony of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the authorities and the government take the incidents very seriously, and "it is hard to imagine that it could be a coincidence."

The first gas leak occurred on one of two Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines on Monday.

According to the DEA, the Danish authorities were notified of the escalation in leaks following a significant drop in pressure on Nord Stream 1 as a result of the two leaks, one in Danish waters and the other in Swedish waters.

"The two leaks were detected shortly after the first leak that was detected on Nord Stream 2 in Danish waters on Monday," the DEA said.

"Breakage of gas pipelines is extremely rare, and therefore we see reason to raise the preparedness level as a result of the incidents we have seen over the past 24 hours," Kristoffer Botzauw, director of the Danish Energy Agency (DEA), said in the press release.

"We have to ensure thorough monitoring of Denmark's critical infrastructure in order to strengthen security of supply going forward."

While the DEA insists that none of the recent leaks "have any significance for the supply of gas to Europe and Denmark, as none of the pipelines were in operation," it did note that the Danish Maritime Authority (DMA) has issued a navigation warning and established a no-go zone with a radius of five nautical miles (approximately 10 kilometers) for ships and one kilometer for aircraft.

Nord Stream 2 had just been finished and filled with 300 million cubic meters of gas when the German government canceled it just days before the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Nord Stream 1 has been shut down since the beginning of September.