Nabucco Submits Environmental Impact Assessment to Turkish Government

The Nabucco Pipeline consortium has announced that it has submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation in Turkey. The report relates to a 760 km long section between Ankara and the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

In a statement released by the consortium, Nabucco said the EIA was an "important step forward in the approval process and realisation of the project."

Nabucco says the EIA was submitted as per the format mandated by the ministry in July of 2010, and involved extensive field studies and expert consultation.

"For the preparation of the EIA report intensive field studies along the entire pipeline involving a number of well experienced environmental and technical experts, as well as consultation with the public and administrative bodies have been conducted to address all relevant subjects in this report," a statement from the consortium said.

The consortium is now working on similar studies for the sections between Ankara to Turkish-Georgian Border and Sivas to Turkish-Iraqi Border. The reports for these sections are expected to be submitted to the Turkish Ministry of Environment by the end of spring of this year.

Nabucco is just one of five pipeline operators currently vying to transport gas from the Shah Deniz Phase II in Azerbaijan. Stakeholders in the pipeline are Botas, Bulgarian Energy Holding, FGSZ, OMV, RWE and Transgaz, all holding a 16.67 per cent stake each.