Update (0735ET):

Reuters quoted NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday, saying attacks against EU critical infrastructure would be met with a “determined response.” He called the acts “sabotage. “

statement from the North Atlantic Council (NATO) read. 

Separately Stoltenberg tweeted:

The sabotage of the Nordstream pipelines is of deep concern. #NATO is committed to deter and defend against hybrid attacks. Any deliberate attack against Allies’ critical infrastructure would be met with a united and determined response. https://t.co/XSiqWK20xF

— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) September 29, 2022

Stoltenberg nor NATO named the culprit behind the pipeline attacks, though some EU officials have suggested Russia. 

There was no mention of how NATO “arrived at its assessment that the damage, which it said has caused substantial environmental fallout and shipping disruptions, resulted from the intentional attack,” WSJ noted. 

NATO’s statement is a significant increase in tensions between Russia and the West ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to annex parts of eastern Ukraine. 

More details on the fourth Nord Stream leak are below. 

* * * 

Sweden’s coastguard confirmed a new leak was discovered on the damaged Nord Stream pipeline system in the Baltic Sea on Thursday, according to Reuters. Add this to the three other leaks for a grand total of four that have been spewing natural gas into the water since Monday. 

While neither NS1 nor NS2 was operational during the suspected undersea explosions earlier this week, they were filled with NatGas to Germany, with Denmark estimating the leaks would dissipate by Sunday. 

There are two massive gas bubbles on the surface of the Baltic above the damaged pipelines in Sweden’s economic zone. One gas bubble measures a staggering 2,950 feet in diameter, while the other is about 600 feet. 

Several EU heads have called the incident “deliberate” and “sabotage,” with Finland stating that only a state actor was capable of the pipeline attack. 

The Baltic region is getting more intense by the day as Norway, now Europe’s top natural gas supplier (recently displaced Russia), increased security at energy infrastructure sites, land terminals, and platforms on the Norwegian continental shelf. There were reports of mysterious drones buzzing oil rigs. 

The UN Security Council will meet Friday at Russia’s request to review the damage to NS1 and NS2. Russia’s US embassy asked for the meeting as it “insists on the need for a comprehensive and objective examination of the circumstances of the unprecedented attacks on Russian pipelines.”

Reuters said the embassy commented on its Telegram channel that the US attempts to “squeeze out” Russian oil firms from the global energy market through “non-market methods and sanctions.” 

The Russian prosecutor’s office told Interfax the Nord Stream incident is being investigated as an “international terrorism” probe.

For now, NS1 appears as if it won’t be operational anytime soon (NS2 was never operational though filled with gas). Before this winter and the reduction in NS1 capacity, the EU received about 40% of its NatGas via pipelines from Russia, a figure that Bloomberg now has around 9%.