Norway’s Equinor says sanctions prevented it helping on Nord Stream | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/norways-equinor-says-sanctions-prevented-it-helping-nord-stream-2023-02-01
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Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 leak reaching surface of the Baltic Sea in the area shows disturbance of well over one kilometre diameter near Bornholm, Denmark, September 27, 2022.
Danish Defence Command/Handout via REUTERS
Norway’s Equinor said European Union sanctions had prevented it from providing services and equipment to inspect the damaged Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, revealing for the first time why Norwegian assistance was not forthcoming.
In September, several unexplained underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, each more than 1,200-km-long, that link Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea, sending methane gushing into the atmosphere.
“The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that work on the pipelines would be in breach of the Norwegian sanction regulations – and by extension the EU sanction regulations,” Equinor said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Norway’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment. The Nordic country is not part of the EU, but is part of its single market and has applied most EU sanctions against Russia.