A new study on the Nord Stream incident released on January 15 said that a series of underwater explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in 2022 led to the largest methane leak recorded in an incident.
In the new study, scientists estimate that the failure of the main pipeline transporting Russian gas to Europe released about 465,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere, much higher than previously estimated.
The cause of the Nord Stream explosion that occurred in September 2022 is still unclear, although Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for this incident as well as other attacks on energy infrastructure.
Three new studies on the Nord Stream explosion include one in the Nature Journal and two in the Nature Communications Journal. Researchers say the potential environmental and climate impacts of the Nord Stream explosion are still unclear.
But the Nord Stream leak is "the largest methane mass ever recorded to come out of a single incident," Stephen Harris wrote in Nature.
It is worth noting that the emissions from the Nord Stream explosion are equivalent to 0.1% of methane released by humans in 2022.
Despite its large scale, the Nord Stream explosion only generates methane emissions equivalent to two days of global oil and gas. There is a great opportunity to address this pollution," said Manfredi Caltagirone, head of the International methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) of the United Nations Environment Program, which supports the study.
After the explosions under the Baltic Sea damaged the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, emissions began to foam at four rupture points, forming huge patches of foam on the surface.
Initial estimates of Nord Stream's leakage of emissions range from 70,000 tons to 300,000 tons.
In a study in the journal Nature, scientists used atmospheric data, satellite images, ocean observation and aerial measurements to model how much methane gas can escape from the ocean.
German aerospace center expert Friedemann Reum said in an article in Nature Communications that the Nord Stream leak " far exceeded" any leak of the same type and was equivalent to 30% of the methane released by Germany each year.
Another article in Nature Communications also looked at the leak's impact on protected marine areas in the Baltic.
Martin Mohrmann from the Swedish Ocean Voice Foundation and his colleagues said that 14% of the Baltic region has methane levels five times higher than the average.
More than 150 countries have signed a commitment to cut methane emissions, but this strong greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere is still at a record high in 2024. The International Energy Agency notes that every day, conventional oil and gas exploitation activities around the world emit methane equivalent to the Nord Stream explosion.
