Gas leaks on Nord Streams no threat to Europe's gas supply - EC spokesman

BRUSSELS. Sept 27 (Interfax) - The European Commission (EC) is following the situation evolving around the gas leaks detected in Russia's Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines, EC Spokesperson Tim McPhie said.

"The European Commission has been informed about the gas leak. We are closely monitoring the situation together with the EU countries involved. Currently, the security of supply is not violated," McPhie told a briefing in Brussels on Tuesday.

Shipments via the Nord Stream pipeline had been stopped and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was not permitted to function, he said.

"We are monitoring whether there are any consequences of the methane leak, which affects climate change and air pollution, and are also in contact with Member States on the consequences for maritime shipping," the EC spokesman said.

The national governments of the affected countries have established safety zones around the leak areas, he said.

When asked if there could have been sabotage, McPhie said it was too soon to launch into that sort of hypothesis. The EC had information from the member states who were now dealing with the problem and Brussels is maintaining contact with them, McPhie said.

Asked if there was a link between the leaks and today's opening ceremony in Poland for a Baltic gas pipeline which would provide Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states with Norwegian gas, he said that for the moment it was too early to speculate on the causes of the leaks and the possible concurrence of the events.

For his part, the EC chief spokesperson Eric Mamer also said that there were no elements as yet to determine what could have caused the leaks in the two pipelines.