​ Nord Stream leak is equivalent to the annual carbon emissions from two million cars

 Sabotage or not the Nord Stream leak has put an enormous amount of Methane Gas into the atmosphere. The amounts can only be speculated because nothing recorded the event. However from looking at typical flow rates and the size the the pipeline it is roughly estimated to be equivalent to the annual carbon emissions from two million cars. Overnight on 26 September, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline’s operators saw a sudden pressure drop, from 105 bar to just 7 bar. Soon after, a 1-kilometre-wide area of the Baltic Sea’s surface was bubbling with the escaping gas. Nord Stream 1 rapidly followed suit. This event, accounts for around 0.14% of the global annual methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, to put the amount in context. In the coming days and weeks, with satellite data, scientists will continue to try to understand how much methane has been released as a result of the leaks. Seismologists already are suggesting that the shockwaves were consistent with the use of high explosives.

Photo ​Xinhua/Shutterstock


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