The Chinese government has reportedly admitted that a domestically owned container ship damaged a key Baltic Sea gas pipeline last year.
An internal investigation by Chinese authorities concluded that the incident involving the 1,638-teu NewNew Polar Bear (built 2005) was an accident as the result of a strong storm, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.
The report said China has reported the results of the probe to European countries.
Last year, Finnish police said they were investigating the vessel following damage to the Balticconnector subsea pipeline and two telecoms cables on 8 October.
They believed the damage was caused by the dragging of an anchor on the seabed.
Police said they had learned that the NewNew Polar Bear was missing one of its front anchors.
The incident cut off pipeline gas supplies to Finland.
The NewNew Polar Bear is operated by China’s Hainan Yangpu NewNew Shipping, part of logistics group Torgmoll, which has been contacted for comment.
Insurance is provided by the London P&I Club.
Probe ongoing
Investigations by Finland and Estonia are continuing.
The Estonian prosecutor’s office told the South China Morning Post that the Chinese investigation is not admissible as official evidence.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation told the newspaper: “The investigation is still ongoing and final conclusions, what was behind these incidents (technical failure-negligence/poor seamanship-deliberate act), can be made only after all necessary investigative measures have been finalised and this will still take some time.”
The Chinese foreign ministry has not commented.
