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New adviser appointed to â€œNABUCCO Gas Pipeline Internationalâ€ Company

21 July 2011 11:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Italian engineering company Dâ€™Appolonia S.p.A. (Dâ€™Appolonia) has been appointed as new Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) Advisor for the Nabucco Pipeline Project, effective from 1 June 2011. With more than 50 years of experience in environmental and social issues, the Italian company is a leading specialist in this field and will support Nabucco in the efficient completion of the project-wide Environmental and Social Impact Assessment.

The main purpose of DÂ´Appoloniaâ€™s appointment is to ensure the successful completion of an integrated project ESIA, fulfilling the requirements of the International Finance Institutions (IFIs) and complying with national and European legislation.

As such, Dâ€™Appolonia will be responsible for ensuring consistency between the national or â€œin-countryâ€ Environmental Impact Assessments and the project-wide Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, as well as for the harmonisation of both NICâ€™s and the IFIsâ€™ (EIB, EBRD and IFC) standards and requirements, as confirmed in the Project Support Agreements (PSAs) in June.

More specifically, Dâ€™Appolonia will produce all the necessary documentation for the project-wide ESIA. As NICâ€™s advisor, they will ensure consistency between NIC and the NNCs and implement the necessary management systems such as the project stakeholder engagement documents, the land acquisition and compensation action plans, and the project environmental and social management plans both at project level and in-country. This will be coordinated in-country and at project level by dedicated teams who will advise the National Nabucco Companies and Local FEED engineers in all environmental and social related matters associated with the completion of the country E(S)IAs and relevant management plans.

Nabucco is the new gas bridge from Asia to Europe. It will directly connect the worldâ€™s richest gas regions - the Caspian region and the Middle East - to the European consumer markets. The pipeline will link the Eastern border of Turkey, to Baumgarten in Austria - one of the most important gas turntables in Central Europe - via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH (NIC) in Vienna was set up in 2008 to develop, construct and operate the Nabucco pipeline. Headquartered in Vienna, it is an unbundled midstream-company under EU law. NIC is owned by the Nabucco shareholders and is responsible for the development, construction, operation and capacity trading and allocation for the Nabucco pipeline. NIC will be the only company in direct contact with the shippers and will offer a one-stop-shop solution, operating as an independent economic entity in the market, and acting independently from its parent companies. The pipeline system will be constructed by the National Nabucco Companies (NNCs), which are subsidiaries of NIC in each of the transit countries.