Removal of Olive Trees for Pipeline to Resume

"Once works can safely resume, the remaining olive trees could be removed and replanted in a matter of days." said Lisa Givert, TAP head of communications

Alfons Pérez‏ @Alfons
By Julie Al-Zoubi
Apr. 21, 2017 11:55 UTC
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Alfons Pérez‏ @Alfons

An Italian court has rejected an appeal against the uproot­ing of olive trees from an olive grove in Puglia to make way for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The rul­ing revoked an order handed down ear­lier this month to halt work and gave TAP devel­op­ers the green light to remove and replant up to 10,000 olive trees.

Once works can safely resume, the remain­ing olive trees could be removed and replanted in a mat­ter of days.- Lisa Givert, TAP

TAP work­ers plan to resume remov­ing the olive trees in the next few days. Time is run­ning out for the com­pany which has to move the first batch of trees before their sea­sonal growth spurt begins at the end of April, or delay their uproot­ing until November.

Lisa Givert, TAP head of com­mu­ni­ca­tions told Olive oil Times, Following today’s pos­i­tive deci­sion of the TAR (Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale) Lazio, TAP con­tin­ues to col­lab­o­rate with all the author­i­ties involved in the process to resume its activ­i­ties on the ground as soon as pos­si­ble in order to remain on sched­ule.”




Once works can safely resume, the remain­ing olive trees could be removed and replanted in a mat­ter of days,” Givert said.

231 olive trees from the project’s micro-tun­nel area are marked to be uprooted and replanted dur­ing the ini­tial phase, includ­ing 16 mon­u­men­tal olive trees.” Ulrike Andres, TAP com­mer­cial and exter­nal affairs direc­tor told Olive Oil Times, TAP is work­ing closely with the rel­e­vant regional author­i­ties to estab­lish the best way (with the least envi­ron­men­tal impact) to move these 16 mon­u­men­tal olive trees.”




A fur­ther 2,000 olive trees will be removed from the pipeline’s 8km route from the micro-tun­nel to the pipeline receiv­ing ter­mi­nal. Up to 10,000 olive trees in total are listed for removal along the Snam’ sec­tion from the TAP pipeline to the receiv­ing ter­mi­nal at Brindisi.

Andres added, It is impor­tant to high­light that the trees will be tem­porar­ily cared for in a nurs­ery area, and later replanted in their orig­i­nal loca­tions.”

Alfons Pérez‏ @Alfons

Removal of the olive trees has already been delayed by more than a year due to oppo­si­tion from locals, the town coun­cil, and the regional gov­ern­ment. In March, work on uproot­ing the trees began but was halted by protests. The protests esca­lated into bat­tles between bot­tle throw­ing activists and the police.

Local author­i­ties have cam­paigned for the pipeline to be rerouted to an indus­trial area fur­ther north of the olive grove. Other loca­tions were con­sid­ered but rejected, but ear­lier this month Carlo Calenda, Italian indus­try min­is­ter told Reuters, It’s not pos­si­ble to change land­fall of Trans Adriatic Pipeline that will bring Azeri gas into Italy. Changing it would mean not build­ing the pipeline.”

Work on the TAP was sched­uled to begin last year. Delays have short­ened the con­struc­tion timetable and could mean the fail­ure of the company’s goal to deliver the first gas to Italy in 2020.

The €4.5 bil­lion pipeline is the final leg of the $40 bil­lion Southern Gas Corridor, which will trans­port Asian gas to Europe.



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