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There’s been an uptick in unidentified drones near Norwegian offshore energy facilities in September.
The Norwegian energy-security agency said there had been “increased drone activity.”
Leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines this week have largely been blamed on sabotage.
Just days before the Nord Stream pipeline was attacked, unidentified drones were spotted near offshore installations off the Norwegian coast, the Norwegian energy-security agency said.
“Operator companies on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) have recently given warnings/notifications of a number of observations concerning unidentified drones/aircraft close to offshore installations,” Norway’s Petroleumstilsynet said in a letter on Friday, September 23.
Nord Stream 1 and 2 each consist of two pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Europe. Since Monday, four leaks in total have been reported across the pipelines near the island of Bornholm in the Danish part of the Baltic Sea, around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from where the drones were sighted.
Some Western governments have said they believe the pipelines were purposefully sabotaged, with some pointing the finger at Russia.
The Petroleumstilsynet held an extraordinary Safety Forum meeting on Thursday for companies and unions involved in Norway’s oil and gas industry.
“Part of the background for enhancing preparedness is the reports received in recent weeks of increased drone activity on the NCS,” it said in a news release.
“These craft have been of different sizes, and their presence has been growing – particularly in September.”
The Norwegian police is now investigating cases where drones had infringed the safety zone around facilities, it added.
All platforms on the continental shelf are surrounded by a safety zone, which generally extends 500 meters (around 0.3 miles) out from the facility and the same amount above its highest point. Unauthorized vessels and aircraft are prohibited from operating in the zone, and the Petroleumstilsynet warns that infringing these zones “may be punishable by law.”
“We would urge increased vigilance, a review of emergency preparedness measures and incident response, and information sharing,” the agency told operators in the letter.
Germany canceled plans to put Nord Stream 2 into operation after Russia moved forces into Ukraine in February.
And in early September, Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom turned off Nord Stream 1’s gas supply to Europe. Both Gazprom and the Kremlin have said this was because of technical problems.
Discussing this week’s leaks, former CIA director John Brennan told CNN: “This is clearly an act of sabotage of some sort and Russia is certainly the most likely suspect.”
Ukraine has accused Russia of causing damage to the pipelines in a “terrorist attack” and “act of aggression” towards the EU as part of efforts to destabilize its economy.
“All currently available information indicates that this is the result of deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage,” NATO said Thursday. It threatened to retaliate, saying that if the damage were caused by sabotage, it “would be met with a united and determined response.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the leaks “an act of international terrorism,” while a Kremlin spokesperson told Reuters that state-sponsored terrorism was likely to blame.