PRESS AND INFORMATION OFFICE
11/2/2019
According to illegal Bayrak television (09.02.19-http://www.brtk.net/?english_posts=exploration-in-the-mediterranean), Turkey’s Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez has said that Turkish Petroleum will continue seismic exploration in “licensed zones” in the Mediterranean.
“Turkey’s second drillship will be in the country’s territorial waters in the Mediterranean around February 20th in anticipation of the go-ahead to begin exploration”, Dönmez said.
Dönmez confirmed during an interview on TRT Haber television channel that Turkish Petroleum would continue seismic exploration in its “licensed zones” in the Mediterranean. “Turkey will continue exploration by making four drillings per year, two of which will be made by the existing Fatih drillship and two with the new vessel that will arrive in the Mediterranean around the 20th of February”.
He confirmed that Turkish Petroleum has already drilled 70 wells last year while the private sector drilled around 40 wells, adding that this would increase in 2019 to 130 and 50, respectively. “As you know we started our deep drilling in October 2018. I think we will get the first result at the beginning of next month or at the end of this month. Of course it’s too early to say anything,” Donmez explained.
However, he shared that following seismic surveys conducted by the two seismic vessels in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Turkey made a small gas discovery in the Thrace region, which he said he would detail further on Monday, 11th of February.
Barbaros Hayrettin Pasa, Turkey’s first seismic vessel, was bought from Norway in 2013, and has been conducting surveys in the Mediterranean since April 2017.
The MTA Oruç Reis vessel, which was built by Turkish engineers in a local shipyard in Istanbul, has been in operation since late June 2017.
Turkey started its first deep-sea drilling offshore Antalya on the Mediterranean coast on October the 30th.
Drilling operations that started on November the 26th in the shallow waters off Mersin in southern Turkey are also ongoing.
Donmez asserted that Turkey would not give consent to the fait accompli in the area in which the “Greek Cypriot administration” has undertaken unilateral exploration around the island.
“We say that it is unlawful for the Greek Cypriot side to tender oil or natural gas exploration in the areas that it claims to be its own,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes (11.02.19) reports that Turkey’s second drillship DeepSea Metri 1 (FATIH-2) has already crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and has already entered the Eastern Mediterranean.
According to the paper, the drillship will stay for three days in Spain’s Algeciras port for maintenance and food supply and later on will depart for the Eastern Mediterranean.
source:https://www.pio.gov.cy/en/επισκοπηση-τουρκοκυπριακου-και-τουρκικου-τυπου-αρθρο.html?id=273
