MOSCOW—A spokesperson for Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday that a mine destroyer discovered at the Nord Stream 1 offshore gas pipeline in 2015 belonged to NATO.
Nord Stream reported on that date in 2015 that a “munitions object” had been cleared by the Swedish armed forces, without giving more detail on the object.
Gazprom spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov told Russian state television on Monday that a NATO device, called a SeaFox, was retrieved from a depth of around 40 meters (125 feet) and made safe.
“Gas transportation, halted because of the incident, was restored,” he said, according to a published extract from his TV appearance.
Gazprom owns 51 percent in Swiss-based Nord Stream AG, operator of Nord Stream 1.
An international investigation is underway into a rupture, discovered late last month, in the Russian-built Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines on the bed of the Baltic Sea.
The pipelines, which have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis, have been leaking gas into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark and Sweden.
