Nord Stream pipe leaks cause toxic cloud in Scandinavia

It is the largest methane escape in history and is equivalent to 1% of Germany’s one-year_CO2 emissions.

An assessment carried out by the ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) research group shows the sharp increase in methane levels in the atmosphere around the four leaks caused in the tubes of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, in the Baltic Sea. At several measuring stations in Sweden, Norway and Finland, high methane values cause serious environmental damage.

According to the latest calculations by the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), sabotage will together cause the escape of 300,000 tons of methane, corresponding to around 7.5 million tons of_CO2 equivalent. CO2 equivalents are used _{as a benchmark for the environmental impact of greenhouse gases.} The number indicates how much the respective gas contributes to global warming compared to carbon dioxide. According to UBA, the calculated value corresponds to approximately one percent of Germany’s total annual emissions. The calculation is based on estimated information on the fill level and volume of the two Baltic Sea pipes.

The biggest escape in history

Due to the location in the water, the extent is difficult to estimate using satellite data, as the reflection of water or cloud cover generates inaccuracies. However, a simulation by the ICOS group assumes that the current wind direction should lead to further expansion of the methane cloud. Several research groups are currently working flat out on a more accurate calculation of potential environmental damage. The measurements that remain to be made in the pipelines, such as the actual amount of contained gas and the current pressure in the storage facility, make it difficult to calculate the environmental impact, but estimates speak of an amount of methane similar to that consumed by three coal-fired power plants in a year, about 115 tons. which even corresponds to 9.6 million tons of CO2. These are the largest methane leaks in history.

In view of the calculations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate experts describe the total loss of the pipelines as “disastrous” and the consequences as “unpredictable”. According to the IPCC, methane is more than 80 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. In fact, compared to operations such as fracking or coal-fired power plants, the impact of gas leaks taking place in the Baltic Sea is a “little bubble”, describes Dave Ray, director of the Climate Change Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Since methane is classified as non-toxic, the flora and fauna of the Baltic Sea should not show any change, but in the face of the atmosphere they represent a super-emitting event of unimaginable proportions. The environmental organization German Environmental Aid has asked the pipeline operators and the German supervisory authorities for an urgent operation to pump the remaining gas from all sections. Its managing director, Sascha Müller-Kraenner, has asked in a statement that “they put the necessary means to empty the tubes in a controlled manner and thus prevent methane from reaching the atmosphere in such tremendous quantities.”

Extreme concentrations of methane in the air

On the other hand, scientists at the Norwegian Air Research Institute (NILU) initially estimated that total methane leaks from the Nord Stream pipeline’s natural gas pipelines could be at least 40,000 tons. Yesterday, new estimates raised that number to 80,000 tonnes. That’s four times more than the Norwegian oil and gas industry’s annual methane emission.

Measurements from the Norwegian observatory Birkenes, as well as several sites in neighboring Sweden, “detected extreme concentrations of methane in the air,” according to NILU. “We’ve never seen anything like this in any of our observatories,” says scientist Cathrine Lund Myhre.

Source: ABC