Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline appears to have stopped leaking, Danes say

The Danish Energy Agency claims one of the two ruptured gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea The natural gas leak appears to have stopped. The agency said on Twitter on Saturday that the company that operates the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline said that pressure in the pipeline, which runs from Russia to Germany, appeared to have stabilized.

“This indicates that the gas leak in this pipeline has stopped,” the Danish Energy Agency said.

The underwater explosions that damaged the Nord Stream I and 2 gas pipelines this week led to large methane leaks. Scandinavian investigators said several hundred pounds of explosives were involved in the blasts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of sabotaging Russian-built pipelines, a charge strongly denied by the US and its allies.

Clashes between the US and Russia continued later at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York called by Russia over the pipeline attacks, and when Norwegian researchers released a map predicting that a huge column of methane from the damaged pipelines will move across wide areas of the Northern region.

Speaking in Moscow on Friday, Putin said the “Anglo-Saxons” in the West had gone from imposing sanctions on Russia to “terrorist attacks” by sabotaging pipelines in what he called an attempt to “destroy Europe’s energy infrastructure.”

in washington, US President Joe Biden rejected Putin’s claims about the pipeline how inappropriate.

“It was a deliberate act of sabotage. And now the Russians are spreading misinformation and lies. We will work with our allies to get to the bottom of what happened,” Biden promised. “Just don’t listen to what Putin says. What he says, we know is not true.’

US officials said Putin’s claims were an attempt to distract from his annexation of parts of Ukraine on Friday.

“We will not allow Russian disinformation to distract us or the world from its clearly fraudulent attempt to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Friday.

European countries suffering from a sharp rise in energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukrainenoted that Russia, not Europe, will benefit from the chaos on the energy markets and the sharp rise in energy prices.

The US has long opposed the two pipelines and has repeatedly called on Germany to stop them, saying they increase Europe’s energy dependence on Russia and reduce its security. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February, Russia has cut supplies of natural gas to Europe for heating homes, power generation and factory operations. European leaders have accused Putin of using “energy blackmail” to divide them over their staunch support for Ukraine.

Pipeline attacks have forced energy companies and European governments to tighten security measures around energy infrastructure.