Cut Pipeline & Comms Cables

[George K]

[Renauda]

Interesting. Have been watching this incident all week. As always the question is who benefits and how? I admit a Chinese vessel a long way from home comes as a bit of surprise on this one.

[Mik]

Wonder what other ships were in the area.

[George K]

Thread:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1716824701904068799.html

Additional updates from Finnish presser:

️Object recovered is anchor.

️Marks on seabed suggest anchor was dragged for at least several kilometers before hitting Balticconnector.

️Seabed mark continued at least several kilometers after pipeline damage site.
Further updates from Finnish presser:

️Remains unclear still if strike is intentional or accidental so investigation still being treated as gross sabotage.

️Chinese vessel <NEWNEW POLAR BEAR> remains under investigation.
Important Context: <NEWNEW POLAR BEAR> vessel managed in joint venture with Russian entity and was near Russian icebreaker <SEVMORPUT> at time of seismic event suggesting pipeline strike timing.
Important Context: fact anchor was dragged several kilometers (and that there is damage also ~200 km away at the Sweden-Estonia telecoms cable (confirmed by Estonia to be connected to the Balticconnector & FEC cable damage)…
…may suggest intentional action since many recent media reported cable cuts from accidental anchor drags elsewhere appear to be caused by weather or ship motion only starting a few hundreds of meters from damage site…
…(vessel anchors then either it’s negligent motion or weather action drag anchor into subsea infrastructure). Both vessels were traveling over ~10knots the entire path through all three damage sites according to AIS data so no slowdown for anchoring appears to have happened…
Time will tell what is to blame, but the investigations of all three damage sites continue: