Here’s how the Nord Stream gas pipelines could be fixed

The environmental impact is still concerning but it is not as bad as it could have been. Between 7.5 million and 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent could have been created by the leaked gas according to estimates by German and Danes. The UN Security Council was told at a September 30 meeting that a potential cap on the amount of gas that could have escaped was put on by the company. While gas is leaking out, it's not safe to investigate and identify potential repairs.

The tricky work of triaging the problems and finding solutions starts once investigators can safely get hands on. The state of the pipe is assessed. According to Jean-Franois Ribet of the Monaco-based oil and gas pipeline repair company 3X Engineering, what are the consequences of sabotage? A robot, a remotely operated vehicle, or specialized divers can be used for that assessment.

The Scottish coast guard.

It's difficult to send divers to the site because of the depth of the line and the fact that most of the leak is underwater. All of it will have to be inspected.

3X Engineering has done repairs at that depth but they need to use saturation diving. When saturation diving is used for deep-sea conditions, divers stay at the extreme depth in a specialized habitat and undergo a single decompression once the operation is over. He says that you will have to stay in the chamber for a month.

It would be difficult to make the repairs. Ribet says there are many options. The most expensive option is to replace the damaged sections of the pipe in their totality. He says you need the same diameter and steel grade. The heavy pipe segments need to be lifted out of the water by ships.

The second option is to cover the damaged sections of the pipe and patch them up. The temporary installation of an underwater caisson would be required in order for engineers to work within the section of the pipe that is 1.153 meters in diameter.

Marin thinks this would be the simplest solution. He says it would take a long time to get a big enough piece of equipment to cover the pipe. If there is extensive damage, the method won't work because it's not possible to build large enough clamps to cover the holes. A third option is a mixture of the two methods: replace the worst-damaged elements of the line and then tighten it up.