Turkey to Continue Drilling around Cyprus: Minister

Turkey plans to "continue" with its drilling activities around Cyprus, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a conference in Ankara October 16. 

According to news agency Anatolia, Cavusoglu said Turkey was not trying to start a conflict and was only interested in ensuring a fair sharing of resources between the two halves of the divided island. He said Turkey would not allow the Cypriot government to act unilaterally in its exploitation of natural resources in the island's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Mediterranean.

"Our aim is a fair sharing of resources. We will not let the rights of Turkey, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Turkish Cypriots be violated," he said.

Cavusoglu did not give any details of any Turkish plans to drill within Cyprus' EEZ. But Turkey's state upstream operator Turkish Petroleum (TP) earlier this year took delivery of its first deep water drill ship, the Deepsea Metro II, renamed Fatih.

According to an announcement in September by energy minister Fatih Donmez, TP is planning to use the ship to start drilling before the end of the year, in Turkey's own EEZ, in the Gulf of Antalya, although an exact location has not been specified.

Earlier this year former energy minister Berat Albayrak announced that TP would conduct its first drilling in the Mediterranean at a depth of 2,600 metres but gave no details of the exact location.

Turkish Petroleum holds a licence to drill inside the Cyprus EEZ, issued by the TRNC, which occupies the northern third of the island but remains internationally unrecognised.

The company's survey vessels have previously conducted seismic surveys in the Mediterranean both in Turkey's own EEZ and in that of Cyprus.

Although the company has not previously conducted any drilling in Cyprus EEZ it has drilled on land in the TRNC, in a move widely viewed as merely symbolic, and which revealed no exploitable hydrocarbon reserves.