Sabotage of Finland gas pipeline spooks energy markets
European gas prices rose as the government of Finland said damage to an underwater gas pipeline to Estonia appears to be an act of deliberate sabotage.
UK gas prices reached their highest level today for around two weeks – jumping 12.7 per cent to 123.2p per therm – after the Finnish Prime Minister made a statement alongside crime inspector, Timo Kilpeläinen, at a press conference this afternoon.
The government confirmed that an ongoing investigation is taking place around the site of the leak in the Baltic Sea. But the extent of damage, Kilpeläinen added, indicates that it could not have been by accident.
Speculation is swirling about potential Kremlin involvement in the context of the Ukraine war. This latest incident has reignited concerns about the vulnerability of Europe’s energy infrastructure and raised the possibility of further sabotage of undersea cables.
The Baltic-connector gas pipeline between Inkoo in Finland and Paldiski in Estonia was closed early on Sunday amid concerns that gas was leaking from a hole in the 48-mile-long facility. Finnish operator Gasgrid has since said that it will take months to repair the damage.
The suspected attack comes little more than a year since explosions hit the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic – which transported gas from Russia to Germany.
This time, Konrad Muzyka, an independent regional defence analyst, said on X that a Russian hydrographic survey vessel, Sibiryakov, had been detected in the Gulf of Finland close to the pipeline and the Estlinks cable in May, August and again in September.
Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo refused to join in with speculation about Moscow’s potential involvement this afternoon. “It is too early to draw conclusions on who or what caused the damage,” he told the press conference. “The important thing is that the matter is thoroughly investigated.”
The Estonia-Finland pipeline opened in 2019 with the aim of reducing dependency on Russian gas. It is much smaller than the Nord Stream pipelines and Orpo insisted today that Finland’s energy supply will remain stable despite the damage. Both Gasgrid and Elering, Finland and Estonia’s respective gas system operators, have also said they don’t anticipate shortages of gas even if the pipeline were to remain inoperable during winter.
Even so, the prospect of a deliberate attack has unnerved global markets ahead of winter.
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