It will take at least five months to repair the damaged Balticconnector gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, says Finland’s state-owned gas operator Gasgrid and the Estonian operator Elering, according to Reuters.

The pipeline’s transportation of gas will not resume until April 1, 2024, at the earliest, according to an announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

The statement comes after obvious damage was found on the Balticconnector on Tuesday.

It was subsequently reported that it could be out of service for ”several months.”

The timeframe has now been clarified to at least five months.

The Balticconnector runs between the port cities of Paldiski in Estonia and Inkoo in Finland.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö wrote on social media site X on Tuesday that the country suspects outside forces may have had a hand in the disaster.

”The damage to the underwater infrastructure is being taken seriously and its causes have been investigated since Sunday. It is likely that the damage to the pipeline and communication cable is due to external activity,” he wrote.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed earlier Wednesday that the defense alliance will react if it turns out that the leak from the gas pipeline was caused by an ”external act”.

”If it turns out to be a deliberate attack on NATO’s critical infrastructure, it will be serious.”

”And it will be met by a united and decisive response from NATO,” Stoltenberg said ahead of a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

On Sunday night, pressure suddenly dropped in one of the pipelines that connects the Northern European gas network.

The head of Finland’s state-owned gas operator, Gasgrid, said there was a rupture in the line. However, the leak was quickly minimized and the pipeline was taken out of service, Swedish media SVT reported.