Nabucco Gas Pipeline International said on Wednesday that the environmental
permitting process for the Bulgarian section of the pipeline route is now
complete.
Bulgaria is the second country after Hungary in which the
project has successfully underwent environmental impact assessment (EIA), the
project company said in a statement published on its website.
The
Bulgarian environment ministry has also approved a preliminary implementation of
the Nabucco EIA permit.
Nabucco Gas Pipeline will continue working with
the Bulgarian authorities in the course of obtaining the other permits,
necessary for the project's realisation, including detailed zoning plan approval
and issuance of the construction permit, the statement said.
The EIA
report was submitted to the ministry at the end of October and received a
positive opinion on the quality of the report in mid-December, following which
the company staged public hearings in 30 municipalities across the country in
the period February 5-25.
The Bulgarian section of the pipeline is 424
kilometres long.
Partners in the Nabucco project are Austria's OMV,
Bulgaria's Bulgargaz, Turkey's Botas, Romania's Transgaz and Hungary's FGSZ, a
subsidiary of MOL.
Nabucco West, a downsized version of the original
Nabucco pipeline, is competing with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline for access to
gas from the giant Azeri Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea. A final route
decision is expected in June.