Bulgaria Gives Nod to Nabucco's EIA

The Bulgarian government has given the nod to the Nabucco consortium's Environmental Impact Assessment for the portion of the pipeline in that country.

In a statement, the pipeline consortium hailed this as "another important milestone."

The report will be available on Nabucco's website from later today.  A series of consultations and meetiings with representatives of communities along the way will now take place, the company says, starting February 2013.

The EU-backed Nabucco project is to carry Caspian natural gas to Europe, circumventing Russia. Russia, however, wants to defend its position as much of its wealth rests on oil and gas receipts.

In May 2012, the Nabucco Consortium presented the revised, smaller version of the gas pipeline project called Nabucco West.

The 1,300-km pipeline Nabucco West is to carry Caspian gas from the Bulgarian-Turkish border to the Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) in Baumgarten, Germany, and beyond. In Bulgaria the section is 422 kms long.