I have to agree. Moreover, the USN is pretty much the premier outfit for performing sophisticated underwater tasks from submarine lockouts. The Russians have been scrambling to develop a similar capability, but even as recent as the “Kursk” disaster they were reliant on Western divers to perform the recovery.
Yeah, you could probably do this with ROV’s and surface ships, but that would attract a lot of attention.
Or fiber-optic-controlled ROVs dropped from Seahawk Helos.
This would just require giving a new mission to existing USN EOD mine hunting capabilities. Instead of planting a charge next to a sea mine or other explosive demolition target, they plant the charge next to the pipeline.
If POTUS (or his handlers) give the USN this mission, they will carry it out, 100%.
Not rocket surgery. More like an easy layup.
The second theory is an explosive charge loaded in behind a standard pipeline inspection “pig” which travels down pipe routinely. That, of course, requires access to the pipe inspection points.