The "Beixi" pipeline is the main pipeline for transporting Russian natural gas to the west, accounting for one third of the total natural gas exported to Europe. It is divided into two parallel pipelines, and the length of a single pipeline is 1222km, which starts near St. Petersburg, Russia and leads to Europe via the Baltic Sea.
Beixi pipeline explosion
According to the French newspaper Le Monde, at 2: 03am local time on September 26th, Swedish and Danish seismic stations recorded an underwater explosion near the leak of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The magnitude of the explosion reached 2.3 on the Richter scale, and then a large amount of natural gas poured into the southeast waters of nearby Bornholm Island. After 17 hours, at 19 local time on September 26th, an underwater explosion was also recorded near the leakage point of the "Beixi 1" pipeline, and the explosion magnitude was 2. 1 on the Richter scale.
Before the incident, the "Beixi" pipeline had stopped running, but there was still a lot of natural gas in the pipeline. The accident happened in the economic waters of Denmark and Sweden. The day after the explosion, on September 27th, 2022, Sweden declared the explosion as man-made destruction. The Swedish Security Agency then blocked the waters around the leak and sent the Coast Guard to take over the police for on-site investigation. At the same time, the Swedish side refused Russia to participate in the investigation on the grounds that the explosion site was not in Russia.