Finnish and Swedish publications cited sources claiming that the pipeline was not damaged naturally.
UK gas prices soared on Tuesday afternoon after Swedish and Finnish media reported that Finland’s government is set to say that damage to an underwater gas pipeline was not accidental.
The pipeline, which started to leak over the weekend, runs between Finland and Estonia, across the bay of Finland.
It comes into land around 40-50 kilometres (25-31 miles) to the west of the two countries’ capitals, Helsinki and Tallinn.
But on Tuesday, authorities in Finland called the media to a press conference, Swedish Radio, Finnish newspaper Iltalehti and state broadcaster Yle all reported.
Jeez, I wonder who could have done this? It’s such a mystery!
In press conference with prime minister:
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Was it Russia? - too early to say
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Who else could it be? - too early to say
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What it done by nation state? - yes, no individual have capability
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Can someone please explain what is the relation between Finland-Estonia pipeline and UK gas prices?
Energy is a global market.
If gas prices increase sufficiently where the pipeline gas is consumed, some suppliers that supply the UK may consider rerouting gas supply to capture the increased price and profit. This means less supply for the UK which increases prices there also until there’s a balance. Higher prices mean people will use less gas until the supply in each area is enough to meet demand.
Did then gas prices increase across the whole of Europe? (I’m don’t closely follow this market). I know it’s a UK newspaper, but the article seems to be very focused on UK and I didn’t see this issue mentioned anywhere else.
I haven’t followed the effect of this particular shock on gas prices but generally with any supply shock it’ll depend on the magnitude and duration of the shock. The bigger the damage and longer it takes to repair means less gas delivered in the same time period.
If the shock is big and/or long (giggity), then I’d expect it to affect anywhere in Europe gas can be redirected from.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
UK gas prices soared on Tuesday after it emerged that Finland’s government believes a leak in an underwater pipeline was caused by “external activity”.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said it appears the leak could not have been caused by normal activities.
UK gas prices jumped 12.7 per cent to 123.2p per therm on Tuesday after Swedish Radio, Finnish newspaper Iltalehti and state broadcaster Yle all reported that the leak was not thought to be an accident.
On Sunday morning, the Balticconnector pipeline in the Gulf of Finland, which is shared by the two countries and Russia, was taken out of service due to a suspected leak.
It comes a little over a year after explosions hit the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic, which transported gas from Russia to Germany.
The Balticconnector pipeline, which opened in 2020, is used to send gas between Estonia and Finland, depending on which country is most in need at any point.
The original article contains 347 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 54%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Octopus tracker prices for gas are up, but still lower than the cap, and way below where they were last year.
