Europe’s largest gas provider says pipeline security inspections clear. An Equinor (EQNR.OL) executive told Reuters that the Nord Stream blasts unharmed Norway’s offshore gas pipelines.
Jannicke Nilsson, Equinor’s security manager, cautioned that hazards persist after last year’s still-unexplained Nord Stream pipeline explosions.
After Russia’s decline last year, Equinor is Europe’s largest gas supplier and Gassco’s technical service provider. So after the Sept. 26 blasts, it began inspections.
“We did find the things that we wanted to check, and when we checked it, it was OK,” Jannicke Nilsson, Equinor’s security, safety, and sustainability leader, said in an interview.
The company claimed it had inspected for faults, foreign objects, and modifications to the seabed pipeline coverage.
Nilsson seldom gives interviews and discusses how the war in Ukraine and Nord Stream explosions has affected Norway’s largest oil and gas producer.
Despite underwater inspections detecting no suspicious things along Norway’s critical pipelines, an assault was still possible.
“It’s there. “Nord Stream 1 and 2 show how far some people will go,” she remarked.
She added that Equinor worked with Norway, the EU, Britain, and NATO to avert such an attack. However, Norway is NATO but not the EU.
Norway labeled Equinor and Gassco important to national security last summer, allowing security services to share necessary classified information.
After the Feb. 24 incursion, Norwegian authorities granted Equinor officials like Nilsson security clearances to study intelligence reports.
IN JANUARY, Equinor CEO Anders Opedal spoke at NATO’s Brussels headquarters on protecting the West’s offshore pipelines and cables.
After Nord Stream exploded, the Norwegian Navy and NATO patrolled offshore oil and gas platforms. In February, NATO created a Critical Undersea Infrastructure Protection Cell to improve industrial cooperation.
“If we need assistance, the Norwegian military and NATO would provide resources…they would be here quickly,” Nilsson added.
Norway’s military guarded oil and gas processing complexes and assisted police onshore, but that has ended.
In March, NATO and EU chiefs Jens Stoltenberg and Ursula von der Leyen visited Norway’s largest gas platform, Troll A, to demonstrate their commitment to gas security.
“I don’t think this could have happened two years ago… because back then we were not seen as that important for European energy security,” Nilsson added. “Now they see that gas from Norway and Equinor is key.”
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