THE disastrous underwater leaks on the Nord Stream fossil gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea appear to have stopped, the Danish Energy Agency said at the weekend.

The company that runs the pipelines told the agency that the pressure on the Nord Stream 2 had been stabilised on Saturday and on the Nord Stream 1 on Sunday.

“This indicates that the blow-out of gas from the last two leaks has now also been completed,” the Danish Energy Agency tweeted today.

The pipelines, which carry fossil gas from Russia to Germany, were damaged in a suspected attack last Tuesday. Western states were quick to blame Russia, which denied sabotaging its own infrastructure and pointed the finger back at the United States, whose President Joe Biden had previously threatened to “take out” the pipelines in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Either way, Greenpeace warned last week that the Nord Stream leaks could have the same climate-wrecking potential as 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2).

“That’s the same as the annual emissions as 20 million cars in the EU,” Greenpeace EU said on Twitter.

“Over the next 20 years (a crucial time period for climate action), every tonne of methane emitted contributes to global heating as much as 84 tonnes of CO2.

“Fossil fuel infrastructure is inherently dangerous. Sabotage or accidents cause massive leaks, but even ‘normal operation’ of oil/gas pipelines and storage causes constant methane leaks, [and is] hugely underreported.

“This leak highlights how dangerous it is to rely on fossil gas.

“The EU and [its member state] governments should do everything possible to move to renewables and cut energy waste (like insulating homes), not look for new gas supplies.”

“We don’t know exactly how much gas was in the pipelines, how much leaked, and how much is absorbed by the water instead of the air.

“But what’s certain is that this is terrible news for the climate, and that Europe’s addiction to gas must end.”