The German authorities are investigating the sabotage of the gas pipeline in the north of the country

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office of Germany has started an investigation into the damage to the gas pipeline in the north of the country on initial suspicion of politically motivated sabotage.

The route is part of Germany’s critically important infrastructure. According to Der Spiegel magazine, the damage is 1.6 million euros. It is not known who committed the sabotage. The attackers did not make any statements on this account.

The ETL 180 gas pipeline under construction connects the floating terminal for receiving liquefied natural gas tankers in the city of Brunsbüttel with the domestic power grid. Gasunie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG reported the damage in early January. However, initially the scale of what happened was not known.

The day before, Der Spiegel reported that unknown persons drilled at least eight holes with a diameter of about ten millimeters. Damages are located in different places of the pipe on a section with a length of more than one kilometer. The company discovered the lack of tightness caused by outside interference during the electronic control during a test pumping of gas at the end of November and immediately reported it to the police.

Professional equipment, including special small-caliber drills, was used to inflict damage, according to investigators from the Department of Criminal Police of Schleswig-Holstein, through which the gas pipeline passes. Initially, the holes on the steel pipe were not noticeable, after drilling they were closed again with an outer sheath.

Repair works are hampered by weather conditions, but they will be fully completed in the coming days. In parallel, the laying of the last, 300-meter section of the pipeline will be continued. Initially, it was scheduled for commissioning at the end of 2023. However, as a result of heavy flooding in this federal land, construction will be completed late.

The floating LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel is the third in Germany. The first tanker with LNG is expected already in January. Liquefied gas supplies should replace the Russian pipeline gas that the country received from Russia by 2022.

The prosecutor’s office is considering all versions of what happened. It is known that in the past years, the construction of the gas pipeline was suspended several times for several days due to blockades by environmental activists.