Kremlin could not say when Nord Stream pipelines could be repaired

MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax) - The Nord Stream gas pipelines can and should be repaired, but the timeframe remains unclear, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Journalists asked Peskov on Monday whether there was an understanding of the timeframe when the pipeline repairs might start. "No, there is no such understanding. There is an understanding that they should be repaired, there is an understanding that, basically, anything can be repaired," Peskov said.

"Those areas have yet to be examined to understand what is happening there, on the bottom, and to assess the scale of the disaster," he said.

Journalists asked whether Russia would be repairing the pipelines together with other countries. "It is unclear what international cooperation we can count on in this situation, considering the hysteric and antagonistic stance of the collective West on our country," Peskov replied.

Gazprom has begun looking for possible solutions for restoring the Nord Stream gas pipeline system across the Baltic Sea, but it is impossible to say how long this will take, the Russian gas giant's spokesman, Sergei Kupriyanov said at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

Gas leaks on both strings of the first Nord Stream pipeline and one of the two strings of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline occurred on September 26 near the Danish island of Bornholm.

The leaks in the modern "high-tech, super reliable offshore gas pipelines, whose reliability has been confirmed by years of safe operation" were caused by "physical damage," Kupriyanov said.

"We have begun the search for possible solutions for restoring the operability of the Nord Stream system. The timeframe is impossible to estimate at the moment. One can say for certain that this is a very complex technical challenge. The first steps are to inspect the location of the damage," Kupriyanov said.

"Europe is essentially deprived of one of the key routes for receiving key energy resources for an indefinite period," he added.

Gazprom has reported that the damaged pipelines contained about 800 million cubic meters of gas, equivalent to three months of consumption in Denmark.