The Nord Stream pipelines cross the Baltic Sea to Germany from Russia, and are the main sources of gas for Europe. Yesterday, four leaks were registered in the apparatus: two of them in the exclusive economic zone of Sweden and two in the economic zone of Denmark. Several governments have called the actions “deliberate” and “sabotage”, pointing fingers at Russia, which is waging war in Ukraine and has stopped gas shipments to Europe.
But beyond the political conflict, there is another imminent danger: these leaks measure up to 900 meters in diameter and have created a bubbling zone of methane gas, the largest recorded in history. This steaming pool in the middle of the Baltic Sea threatens to unleash an environmental disaster.
An “invisible tar” leak. The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) of Germany has warned of the environmental damage that these leaks will cause. Because of the breaks, the gas has escaped and the pressure levels in the tube drop imminently to zero until it is completely emptied. It is estimated that 115,000 tons of methane have already been dumped, a powerful greenhouse gas 84 times more polluting than carbon dioxide. When the gas expands it causes bubbles and even glass is generated, a phenomenon known as “invisible tar”.
impossible to control. Doubts are evident among the experts about whether the two gas pipelines have safety valves that allow the leak to be isolated, but the German Federal Environment Agency has said that there are no such: “There are no containment mechanisms in the pipes, so that everything is likely to escape,” they explained in a statement. In fact, a spokesman for the Swedish coastguard says that right now it is not possible to combat or limit the spill.
At the very least, an explosion in the area due to the leak is ruled out, since the area is very cold water and the expansion of the gas. And no damage to marine biodiversity is expected.
hard to detect. Until now, a leak of this size had never been detected in the sea. In fact, in this report from EL PAÍS, Luis Guanter, director of Terrestrial and Atmospheric Remote Sensing at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, explains that it is extremely complicated to detect the leak with satellites: “First, it takes place on a water surface, which practically it does not reflect solar radiation in the infrared spectrum that is used to estimate methane concentration; second, the frequent clouds in the region do not allow solar radiation to pass to the source of the emission, nor from it to the satellite”.
Great environmental impact. The biggest problem of all is that the pipes contain a compressed gas that is already rapidly expanding and diluting in the ocean, releasing much of it into the atmosphere. Scientist David McCabe, an expert from the Clean Air Task organization, commented on Bloomberg that, 20 years from now, “a ton of methane has a climate impact that is more than 80 times greater than carbon dioxide”, which means that the current leak is “very worrying”.
Others make more apocalyptic comparisons, such as what has been emitted at the moment is already equivalent to the emissions of two million cars for an entire year. Or that what will end up in the atmosphere is also 3% of all the greenhouse gases that Spain expels in a year.
Who takes care of the mess? It’s a mystery. Each European country is obliged to answer to the UN and the EU about its emissions and, in this way, they present reports to the organizations of all the gases they expel. Now the dilemma is who is going to answer for these 7.5 million tons of CO2. Germany was the main recipient of the gas that traveled in the gas pipelines. However, the Federal Environment Agency has already said that it will not bear the climate consequences: “Since at least one of the leaks is on Danish territory, the emissions will probably be attributed to Denmark.”
Image: GTRES