By Nerijus Adomaitis

BERGEN, Norway (Reuters) – Inspections of Norway’s offshore fuel pipelines after the Nord Stream blasts discovered nothing suspicious, an govt at power main Equinor informed Reuters, within the first official phrase on the safety sweep.

Nonetheless, dangers stay after final 12 months’s still-unexplained explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines constructed to hold Russian fuel to Germany by way of the Baltic Sea, warned Jannicke Nilsson, who manages safety for Equinor.

Europe’s largest fuel provider after a drop in Russian flows final 12 months, Equinor additionally acts as technical service supplier for offshore pipelines operator Gassco. It launched the inspections shortly after the explosions on Sept. 26.

“We did discover the issues that we wished to test, and once we checked it, it was OK,” Jannicke Nilsson, Equinor’s govt in command of safety, security and sustainability, stated in an interview.

The corporate stated inspections had been carried out to establish something out of the strange, like damages, international objects or any adjustments to how the pipelines are coated on the seabed.

Nilsson, who hardly ever offers interviews, spoke about how the warfare in Ukraine and the Nord Stream explosions have modified the operations of Norway’s largest oil and fuel producer.

Regardless of underwater inspections not discovering any suspicious objects alongside Norway’s key pipelines, the specter of an assault was nonetheless current.

“It isn’t gone. What occurred with Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 is a really clear reminder of how far some individuals are keen to go,” she stated.

NATO HELP

Equinor was working with authorities in Norway, the European Union, Britain and navy alliance NATO on what the corporate can do to stop such an assault, she added.

Norway is a member of NATO however not of the European Union.

Final summer time, Norway designated Equinor and Gassco as corporations crucial to nationwide safety, permitting safety companies to share related labeled info.

After the Feb. 24 invasion, some Equinor executives together with Nilsson obtained safety clearances from Norwegian authorities, permitting them to learn intelligence stories.

In January, Equinor CEO Anders Opedal went to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels to talk about safety of the West’s offshore infrastructure, resembling pipelines and cables.

After the Nord Stream blasts, the Norwegian Navy and NATO allies patrolled round offshore oil and fuel platforms. In February, NATO established a Essential Undersea Infrastructure Safety Cell to enhance cooperation with the trade.

“If we want help, the Norwegian navy and NATO would supply sources… they’d be right here shortly,” Nilsson stated.

Onshore, Norway’s navy posted troopers to protect main oil and fuel processing vegetation and assist police, although their work there has now ended.

In a present of NATO’s and the EU’s concentrate on defending Europe’s fuel provides, their chiefs Jens Stoltenberg and Ursula von der Leyen visited Norway’s largest fuel producing platform, Troll A, in March.

“I do not assume this might have occurred two years in the past… as a result of again then we weren’t seen as that necessary for European power safety,” Nilsson stated. “Now they see that fuel from Norway and fuel from Equinor is essential.”