Nabucco Pipeline Gets Hungarian Environmental Go-Ahead

Hungary today has become the first country to complete the permitting process for the Nabucco pipeline with the signing of the environmental permits for the project.

In a statement released by Nabucco, Managing Director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH Reinhard Mitschek said that the news was an important milestone for the pipeline. 

"The granting of this permit is a substantial step forward in Hungary and signifies the advanced stage of development of Nabucco West," he said.

The approval of an environmental permit today finalises a two-tiered application process begun by the Nabucco consortium in 2010, in which the consortium has attained a number of permits, dealing with environmental protection and nature conservation. The decision by the Hungarian authorities means that the Nabucco pipeline consortium is now free to begin the application process for construction licences in Hungary to move ahead with the project.

"The next steps in Hungary are now to finalise the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) for Nabucco West and to continue the process of obtaining the necessary permits for construction," Gabor Bercsi, Managing Director of the Nabucco National Company in Hungary said. "We are looking forward to a continued cooperation with Hungarian authorities as the Project progresses further."

The Nabucco West pipeline, a revised version of the original Nabucco pipeline, is one of the pipelines in the running to transport gas from the BP-operated Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan. The pipeline's route is designed to cover 384 kilometres of Hungarian territory.