A Norwegian Navy ship shadowed a Chinese container ship investigated over injury to a gasoline pipeline within the Gulf of Finland for about 15 hours because it sailed alongside the western coast of Norway on Monday, vessel monitoring knowledge confirmed.
Finnish investigators on Tuesday mentioned they have been wanting into the Chinese vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, and a Russian-flagged ship, the Sevmorput, in addition to different vessels, current within the space when a Baltic Sea pipeline was broken on Oct. 8.
They mentioned the incident was resulting from “outside activity” and will have been deliberate.
The NewNew Polar Bear is a container ship travelling between Europe and China through the Northern Sea Route within the Arctic. On Monday, it left the Baltic Sea and entered the North Sea to move north alongside the Norwegian coast.
A Norwegian coast guard patrol vessel, the KV Sortland, shadowed the NewNew Polar Bear from Monday 0400 GMT off Norway’s southern tip, till round 1915 GMT, when the vessel was some 70 km (43 miles) northwest of Bergen, Marine Traffic knowledge confirmed.
The space lined broadly coincides with the realm the place most of Norway’s exporting gasoline pipelines are situated, in addition to a few of its key oil and gasoline platforms.
The KV Sortland adopted the NewNew Polar Bear at a distance of 1 nautical mile, or about 1.8 km, for about 15 hours.
The Norwegian navy’s operational command centre declined to touch upon Monday’s operation.
Speaking typically, it mentioned the coast guard “plays a crucial role in maintaining the security and safety of maritime activities in the region, including fisheries protection, search and rescue operations, and monitoring of shipping activities”.
NewNew Shipping, the proprietor and operator of the NewNew Polar Bear, declined to remark when contacted by Reuters.
Norway, Europe’s largest gasoline provider, deployed its Navy after the Nord Stream sabotage to guard its offshore oil and gasoline platforms, in addition to its community of gasoline pipelines below the North Sea, which unfold over 8,000 km (4,971 miles).
Oslo is carefully monitoring the progress of the probe within the Baltic Sea incident.
(Reuters – Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, Anne Kauranen, Andrius Sytas and Beijing newsroom; enhancing by Gwladys Fouche and Bill Berkrot)
