Turkey to send another ship for gas search off Cyprus

ANKARA: Turkey will send another vessel for gas and oil exploration off Cyprus on Monday, the energy minister said Sunday amid escalating tension over prospecting off the divided island.

It will set sail from Turkey’s southern Antalya port for the Mediterranean on Monday morning, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told the Anatolia news agency on Sunday.

The ship will prospect for gas and oil in a 1,100 square-kilometre area and stay for 40 days in the Mediterranean, he added.

Regional tensions have risen since the Cyprus government, recognised internationally but not by Turkey, struck a deal with US energy firm Noble, which has already started exploratory drilling for gas off the southern coast of Cyprus.

In retaliation, Turkey sent a ship, Piri Reis, to the region in September after signing an accord with the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which only Ankara recognises, for gas exploration.

Piri Reis will also continue gas exploration activities, the minister said.

He also announced that Turkey had another ship prospecting gas and oil in the Mediterranean after an agreement with an international company, which he said has not been publicised so far.

“So, as of tomorrow we will have three vessels in the Mediterranean,” said Yildiz.

The gas exploration “will continue in the north and south and even in the western parts of the island,” he added.

Turkey says the Cyprus government has no right to conduct offshore energy exploration while UN-backed talks on reunifying the island are ongoing.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at union with Greece.

With the island now a member of the European Union, the Cyprus dispute is a major obstacle to Turkey realising its ambitions of joining the bloc.

Turkey has threatened to freeze its ties with the EU if Cyprus takes the rotating presidency of the bloc as scheduled next year before a solution is reached on the island’s future.

via THE DAILY STAR :: Business :: Middle East :: Turkey to send another ship for gas search off Cyprus.