Gazprom: NATO Mine Destroyer Was Found at Nord Stream 1 in 2015

Gazprom: NATO Mine Destroyer Was Found at Nord Stream 1 in 2015
Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 leak are seen reaching surface of the Baltic Sea, near Bornholm, Denmark, on Sept. 27, 2022. (Danish Defence Command/Handout via Reuters)
Reuters
10/11/2022
Updated:
10/11/2022

MOSCOW—A spokesperson for Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday that a mine destroyer discovered at the Nord Stream 1 offshore gas pipeline in 2015 belonged to NATO.

Nord Stream reported on that date in 2015 that a “munitions object” had been cleared by the Swedish armed forces, without giving more detail on the object.

Gazprom spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov told Russian state television on Monday that a NATO device, called a SeaFox, was retrieved from a depth of around 40 meters (125 feet) and made safe.

“Gas transportation, halted because of the incident, was restored,” he said, according to a published extract from his TV appearance.

Gazprom owns 51 percent in Swiss-based Nord Stream AG, operator of Nord Stream 1.

An international investigation is underway into a rupture, discovered late last month, in the Russian-built Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines on the bed of the Baltic Sea.

The pipelines, which have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis, have been leaking gas into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark and Sweden.