Bulgarian Local Authorities All Up for Nabucco

Presentation of the Nabucco projects in Lovech municipality. “It is of utmost importance for us that the project is finished. We will do what is necessary to see to it," said the mayor of Lovech Mincho Kazandzhiev. Photo by Nabucco GmbH

The National Nabucco Company in Bulgaria has completed successfully consultations with Bulgarian local authorities on the future gas transit pipeline.

The Nabucco project is progressing steadily with the completion of 26 consultation meetings with local authorities in Bulgaria - part of the public consultation process within the Environmetal & Social Impact Assessment in Bulgaria – which were organized by the National Nabucco Company in Bulgaria (Nabucco Gas Pipeline Bulgaria EOOD – Sofia), announced Friday the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, the international consortium working to build the Nabucco pipeline.

"The meetings with the municipal authorities were successful and these will provide full support for the project in Bulgaria. The gas pipeline will connect Asia with Europe enabling the diversification and security of natural gas supplies for Bulgaria," said Christian Dolezal, spokesperson for Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH.

The pipeline will pass through 9 Bulgarian districts (Yambol, Burgas, Shumen, Pleven, Lovech, Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse and Vratsa), 24 municipalities and 112 populated areas.

"The Nabucco gas pipeline is very important for Bulgaria as it constitutes a fully alternative source of natural gas for the country. It will link the countries? consumers to the Central European Gas Hub and other European and Turkish market centres, with enough capacity to meet local demand", added Christian Dolezal. 

The Bulgarian part of the pipeline is 412 km long and will have a diameter of 1.4 meters.   Experts working on the Nabucco project have explained that the route has been carefully selected to avoid densely populated areas, protected natural areas, ecologically sensitive areas and areas of cultural heritage, as much as possible. The planned route also aims to keep the overall length of the pipeline to a minimum and to minimize any environmental impact.

Nabucco will acquire the Right of Ways (RoWs) necessary for the pipeline route before the start of construction. Nabucco will contact landowners owning parcels of land that will be crossed by Nabucco before applying for construction permit to the competent authority.

Тhe activities for Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the Nabucco project have already started. The EIA application will be submitted to the competent authority in Bulgaria shortly.

"The Nabucco project has made significant progress to date and is the most advanced pipeline project in the southern corridor. In September, Nabucco received strong support from the International Financial Institutions (EBRD, EIB, IFC) who signed a mandate letter and have started the due diligence on the project. It is thought that loans could amount to EUR 4 B. Furthermore, the ESIA process has started across all five transit countries and good progress has been made so far," the company statement says.

It points out that those milestones all follow crucial steps that have been achieved in the last few years, including the signing of an Intergovernmental agreement in July 2009 in Ankara. Looking ahead, we expect the Project Support Agreement to be signed by each transit country before the end of 2010.

The start of construction of the pipeline in all transit countries, including the Bulgarian section, is scheduled for 2012.

Nabucco will directly connect the world's richest gas regions - the Caspian region and the Middle East - to the European consumer markets. The pipeline will link the Eastern and Southern border of Turkey to Baumgarten in Austria - one of the most important gas turntables in Central Europe - via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

The Nabucco shareholders are: Bulgarian Energy Holding (Bulgaria), Botas (Turkey), MOL (Hungary), OMV (Austria), RWE (Germany) and Transgaz (Romania), Each shareholder holds an equal share of 16.67% of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH. 

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