Baltic Sea News

The Baltic Sea has become a flashpoint for a multitude of maritime security issues, a driver for the Finnish Border Guard to renew its fleet.The completion of the two new patrol vessels ordered from Meyer Turku by the Finnish Border Guard is progressing, an on December 3, 2024, production was started of the second ship, planned for delivery in 2026.A start of production ceremony was held at the Baltic Operator shipyard in Gdansk. Representatives of the Border Guard, Meyer Turku…

Sweden is asking a Chinese vessel to return to Swedish waters to help facilitate the Nordic country's investigation into recent breaches of undersea fibre-optic cables in the Baltic Sea, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday.Two subsea cables, one linking Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania, were damaged in less than 24 hours on Nov. 17-18, raising suspicions of sabotage, countries and companies involved said.Denmark's military said soon afterwards that its vessels were staying close to Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3…

The Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, which was damaged last month, will get a bigger northbound transmission capacity next year following repairs, Finnish operator Gasgrid said in a statement on Wednesday.The increase will come from an enhancement of the Latvia-Lithuania interconnection, which allows for higher gas volumes to be transported around the Finnish-Baltic region, it added.The pipeline will in the future get a base capacity of 70.5 gigawatt hours of gas per day in the direction from Estonia to Finland…

Estonia's prosecutor general said on Friday that the Hong Kong-registered NewNew Polar Bear container vessel was the primary suspect in an investigation of damage to two subsea telecoms cables linking Estonia to Finland and Sweden. "We prepared a legal assistance request to China so that the local law enforcement authorities would perform the procedural operations, primarily those connected to the vessel and its crew," State Prosecutor Triinu Olev said in a statement. The two cables were damaged on Oct 7-8.

A tanker carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) docked at Finland's Inkoo terminal on Sunday and has begun unloading, energy company Gasum said on Monday, the second cargo to arrive since the damage last month to a Finnish-Estonian pipeline.The Arctic Princess, carrying natural gas from the Arctic Hammerfest LNG plant, had been expected to arrive at Inkoo during the weekend, shipping data showed on Friday.The delivery amounted to about 400 gigawatt hours of energy, Gasum said."In addition to this delivery, Gasum has reserved three more slots at the Inkoo FSRU for the upcoming winter season.

A tanker carrying Norwegian liquefied natural gas (LNG) is set to arrive at Finland's Inkoo terminal overnight, vessel tracking data showed on Friday, making it the second cargo since the Oct. 8 outage of a Finnish-Estonian gas pipeline.The Arctic Princess, carrying natural gas from the Arctic Hammerfest LNG plant, signaled its arrival at Inkoo on Friday at 2300 GMT, LSEG shipping data showed, corresponding to Saturday morning at 0100 EET in local time.The tanker loaded in Norway on Sept. 17 but sat off the Danish coast since Sept.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Tuesday that China was cooperating in Finland's investigation of the Hong Kong-flagged NewNew Polar Bear vessel's role in the Oct. 8 damage to the Balticconnector pipeline.Finnish police leading the criminal investigation have named the NewNew Polar Bear container carrier as the prime suspect in damaging the gas pipeline early on Oct. 8, saying it was too early to tell if this was an accident or a deliberate act.A large anchor, believed to belong to the NewNew Polar Bear…

The three incidents that resulted in damage to a gas pipeline and two telecom cables between Estonia, Finland and Sweden "are related", Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.Finnish police leading the pipeline investigation have named the Hong Kong-flagged container carrier NewNew Polar Bear as the prime suspect in damaging the Balticconnector Finland-Estonia gas pipeline early on Oct. 8.A large anchor was found near the pipeline, and the investigators believe the pipe was…

China is willing to provide necessary information in accordance with international law regarding an investigation on damage to a Baltic Sea gas pipeline, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday at a regular press briefing.The damage earlier this month is believed to have been caused by a ship dragging a large anchor along the seabed, but it was too early to tell if this was an accident or a deliberate act, Finnish police said on Tuesday.

The Kremlin said on Monday that any threats made against Russia were "unacceptable" after Latvia's president said NATO should shut the Baltic Sea to shipping if Moscow were found responsible for damage to a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also repeated Moscow's denial of any involvement in the damage inflicted on the Balticconnectorpipeline and a telecoms cableon Oct. 8.Finnish investigators have said the damage may have been an act of sabotage…

China's foreign ministry on Monday called for an "objective, fair and professional" investigation into damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline, adding that a Chinese vessel was sailing "normally" in the relevant waters.China and Finland have started communication over the matter, and China hopes that relevant parties can find out the truth as soon as possible, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing.An investigation into the pipeline damage is currently focused on the role of the Chinese NewNew Polar Bear container vessel, Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI

Finland's foreign ministry said on Friday it had contacted China and Russia via diplomatic channels regarding the investigation of damage to a pipeline and a telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea.Early on Oct. 8, a gas pipeline and a telecoms cable connecting Finland and Estonia were broken, in what Finnish investigators say may have been deliberate sabotage. The Finnish foreign ministry in a statement to Reuters on Friday said it had contacted China to seek help to get in touch with the NewNew Polar Bear vessel, a ship named as a subject of investigation by Finnish police.Regarding Russia, Finland contacted the Russian foreign ministry, "stating the seriousness of the matter"…

Russia's successor to McDonald's has teamed up with energy company Gazprom Neft to fuel marine vessels with biofuel produced using waste cooking oil an effort to lower their carbon footprints, the companies said on Thursday.Russia has said it was still committed to its climate targets despite the deepest political rift with the West in decades. Biofuels are widely considered to be less harmful in terms of emissions than conventional fuels.Gazprom Neft's bunkering business subsidiary…

Viking Line has started to offer passengers on its Turku-Åland-Stockholm route the option of purchasing renewable biofuel in proportion to the amount of fuel used for their journey.Starting June 21, Viking Line’s passengers on the Turku-Åland-Stockholm route can purchase biogas in proportion to the amount of fuel used for their journey. On a cruise between Turku and Stockholm, the additional price is less than 5 euros. At that price, passengers reduce their carbon footprint by up to 90% compared to a trip where LNG is used.European biogas…

Germany cannot be relaxed about the need for liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in the Baltic Sea, a high-ranking economy ministry official said on Monday, a week after plans emerged to scale down the region's Mukran project after local resistance. "We should not be relaxed about supply security in the next winter," said Stefan Wenzel, a parliamentary state secretary in the ministry led by Robert Habeck of the Green Party. "We cannot afford to be unprotected and we also have…

Damage to the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Europe was caused by powerful explosions, Danish police said on Tuesday, echoing earlier findings into leaks that erupted in the network under the Baltic Sea and that have been blamed on sabotage.In what a Swedish newspaper described as the first publicly released footage of damage to the system, film from a private drone appeared to show a gaping rupture in one pipe. Expressen reported a 50-meter section missing from one area of pipeline.Dwindling flows of gas from Russia…

A spokesperson for Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday that a mine destroyer discovered at the Nord Stream 1 offshore gas pipeline in 2015 belonged to NATO. Nord Stream reported on that date in 2015 that a "munitions object" had been cleared by the Swedish armed forces, without giving more detail on the object. Gazprom spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov told Russian state television on Monday that a NATO device, called a SeaFox, was retrieved from a depth of around 40 metres (125 feet) and made safe.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Thursday it was "unthinkable" that an investigation into ruptures on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines would proceed without Russia's participation.Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the West was purposefully creating obstacles to the investigation and said the exclusion of Russia and Gazprom from the probe showed it had something to hide.President Vladimir Putin last week directly accused the United States and its allies of carrying out the attack on the pipelines, which has threatened to put them permanently out of use.

Russian vessel Fortuna has started laying pipes for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in German waters, the gas project said on Sunday, citing Germany's Waterway and Shipping Authority.Nord Stream 2, which runs on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine, has faced criticism from the United States, which claims it will increase European reliance on Russian gas.Fortuna and other vessels taking part in the project have been added to a U.S. sanctions list."All works are performed in accordance with the available permits," Nord Stream 2 said in an emailed comment.Fortuna will be working in German waters from May 22 to June 30…

Two Danish crew members of a capsized barge were missing in the freezing Baltic Sea on Monday after an overnight collision with a British vessel in a busy maritime route off Sweden.With the pair unlikely to survive long in water temperatures around 4 Celsius, rescue boats and a helicopter hunted for hours. There was also hope they might still be inside an air pocket within the hull of the overturned Karin Hoj.The 55-meter Danish barge and 90-meter Scot Carrier were sailing in the same direction off the island of Bornholm when they crashed in fog and darkness at 3.30 a.m.

The consortium behind the Nord Stream 2 undersea gas pipeline said on Thursday a second Russian pipe-laying vessel is undergoing sea trials ahead of joining the project, as it presses on with construction despite growing political pressure.The vessel, the Akademik Cherskiy, left the German port of Wismar on Thursday with the intention of later joining the project in Danish waters, the consortium told Reuters.The United States has criticized the plan to build the pipeline from Russia to Germany…

The much-politicized Nord Stream 2 undersea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is 99% complete, the pipeline operator said on Wednesday, after the pipelay vessel Akademik Cherskiy finished its initially planned workload.The $11 billion Nord Stream 2, designed to bypass Russia's political foe Ukraine and double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream pipeline to 110 billion cubic meters per year, has been a focal point of tensions between Moscow and Washington.The construction of the pipeline has been hampered by sanctions introduced by the United States at the end of 2019…

Dutch offshore installation firm Heerema Marine Contractors said Monday its semi-submersible crane vessel had crossed the Storebaelt Bridge, known as the ‘gate to the Baltic Sea.'"This crossing is the first time a Heerema crane vessel has accessed the region and is the result of innovative crane alterations to enable passage below the bridge. While ballasted down to Thialf's maximum draught the total air draught was just under 65 m with the A-frames down," the company said.Credit: Heerema Marine ContractorsWhen Thialf was moored in the Port of Rotterdam over the winter of 2021-2022…