On 30th September 2022, a GHGSat high-resolution satellite detected emissions coming from the Nord Stream 2 leak in the Baltic Sea at a rate of 79,000 kg/h, which is equivalent to more than 2 million pounds of coal being burned in an hour. This rate is very high, especially considering its four days following the initial breach, and this is only one of four rupture points in the pipeline.
The $7.1 (€7.4) billion Nord Stream 1 subsea pipeline, which stretches up to 1200 km (745 miles) under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near St. Petersburg to north-eastern Germany, has been operational since 2011.
With the capacity of sending a maximum of 170 cubic metres of gas per day from Russia to Germany, the pipeline is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, and Gazprom, a Russian state-owned company owns majority shares of Nord Stream AG.
Gazprom was also building Nord Stream 2 but Germany postponed granting it an operating license due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However Gazprom informed that they had reduced the volumes of gas, and by the end of August they had completely shut the pipelines, blaming Western sanctions for the delay of necessary repairs of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
“It is relatively likely that there’s a leak. The pipeline was never in use, just prepared for technical operation, and therefore filled with gas,” Nord Stream 2 spokesman Ulrich Lissek said.
“What our satellites observed is a significant emission coming from one of the four leaks in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and underscores the critical role technology can play in a crisis situation,” said Stephane Germain, Founder and CEO of GHGSat.
On 26th September, 2022 pressure drops were reported at both the Nord Stream1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines running underneath the Baltic Sea. Later three leaks (one line of Nord Stream 2 and both lines of Nord Stream 1 pipeline) were recorded off the coasts of Denmark and Sweden.
Seismologists based in Denmark and Sweden suggest that sizeable explosions on the order of 100 kilograms of TNT occurred in both incidents.
Even though gas leaks are relatively harmless to the surrounding unlike oil spillages, in this case the climate experts indicated a warning to the climate change, considering the amount of methane that was released into the atmosphere. According to initial estimates, a total of 500 million cubic meters of gas was lost, which is equivalent to 8 million tons of carbon dioxide or 1/5000 of annual global CO2 emissions.
Jea-Francois Gauthier, VP of Measurements and Strategic Initiatives for GHGSat, says, “Cause of the pipelines leakages remain unknown, but theories abound. It was almost certainly man-made, this pipeline was designed to prevent damage as a result from normal operations.”
He cites from a Nord Stream document, on the design of Nord Stream 1:
“Pipeline repairs are not expected to be necessary during Nord Stream’s minimum operational lifespan of 50 years. Owing to the high quality of the materials involved and the conservative design of the pipelines, damage and deformation are highly unlikely. In fact, the probability of pipeline failure or leakage is as low as one damage event every 100,000 years.”
GHGSat’s role in monitoring GHG emissions
“Satellite monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions is critical to the fight against climate change. GHGSat is continually enhancing its ability to provide all stakeholders with the most reliable and up-to-date data and insights on emissions worldwide. We have additional launches planned to bring our constellation to ten satellites by the end of 2023,” stated Germain.
In May 2022, GHGSat launched three satellites, GHGSat-C3 (Luca), C4 (Penny) and C5 (Diako), aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, making it a total of six satellites in space that are capable of monitoring GHG emissions.
The company’s patented infrared sensor detects the ‘signature’ of methane in the atmosphere in the way the gas absorbs sunlight bouncing back from the Earth’s surface. Since water absorbs sunlight in the infrared spectrum, GHGSat tasks its satellites to perform off-shore measurements at larger viewing angles, targeting the area where the sun’s light reflects most strongly off the sea surface – the ‘glint spot’.
While this technique has been previously demonstrated by other satellites, GHGSat has now successfully demonstrated the potential for satellites to monitor methane emissions from thousands of offshore production sites around the world, which account for 30% of global oil & gas production.
“We routinely detect and quantify methane emissions from many different types of onshore industrial sites. Now our technology can monitor offshore sites”, said Germain
The Danish Energy Agency announced that the series of leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines have stopped. A GHGSat satellite had a clear observation over Nord Stream 2 on October 3rd, they did not detect any emissions, and thus confirmed the announcement.
