After the gas (96% methane) leak from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the level of methane over Sweden and Norway has hit record levels, Swedish and Norwegian media report, referring to a ‘big cloud’. According to calculations by the Norwegian air research institute ‘Nilu’, the suspected sabotage released about 40,000 tonnes of methane, double the annual methane emissions of the oil and gas industry in Norway. These are record levels, unseen before in Norway and Sweden. According to Danish and Swedish media, in a joint letter to the UN Security Council, Denmark and Sweden state that the explosions that caused the gas leaks from Nord Stream 1 and 2 could be due to the detonation of ‘several hundred kilos of explosives’. The two countries also express concern about the possible consequences of the gas leaks for the marine environment and climate.
