A Norwegian Navy vessel closely followed a Chinese container ship, the NewNew Polar Bear, under investigation for its involvement in the damage to a gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland.
This tracking occurred for approximately 15 hours as the Chinese vessel sailed along the western coast of Norway on Monday, according to vessel tracking data.
The incident, which occurred on October 8, resulted in damage to a Baltic Sea pipeline. Finnish investigators are examining the NewNew Polar Bear, along with a Russian-flagged ship named Sevmorput, as well as other vessels in the area. The investigation suggests that the damage may have been caused by "outside activity" and potentially deliberate actions.
The NewNew Polar Bear is a container ship that traverses the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic, connecting Europe and China. After departing from the Baltic Sea, it entered the North Sea and continued northward along the Norwegian coast.
During this voyage, the Norwegian coast guard patrol vessel, KV Sortland, shadowed the NewNew Polar Bear from 0400 GMT on Monday off Norway's southern tip until approximately 1915 GMT, when the vessel was approximately 70 km (43 miles) northwest of Bergen, as indicated by Marine Traffic data. This region corresponds to the location of most of Norway's gas pipelines for exports, along with several key oil and gas platforms.
The KV Sortland maintained a distance of one nautical mile (approximately 1.8 km) from the NewNew Polar Bear throughout the 15-hour monitoring operation.
While the Norwegian military's operational command center did not comment on the specific operation, it emphasized the coast guard's essential role in maintaining security, ensuring safety in maritime activities, fisheries protection, conducting search and rescue operations, and monitoring shipping activities in the region.
NewNew Shipping, the owner and operator of the NewNew Polar Bear, declined to provide a comment on the matter when contacted by Reuters.
Norway, a major European gas supplier, had deployed its Navy to safeguard its offshore oil and gas platforms and extensive network of gas pipelines under the North Sea, covering a distance of over 8,000 km (4,971 miles), following the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline. The authorities in Oslo are closely monitoring the developments related to the Baltic Sea incident. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Chris Roys, Wikimedia commons.