By Ahval,
Turkey will resume exploring for natural gas in the Mediterranean on Aug. 9, Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez said.
The country’s newly purchased drill ship Abdülhamid Han has a mandate to start operating within Turkey’s maritime jurisdiction, Dönmez said in a televised interview with Haber Global on Tuesday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will announce details of exactly where the ship is to explore for gas at a ceremony at the southern port of Taşucu to mark the beginning of the mission, Dönmez said.
Turkey is at loggerheads with Greece and Cyprus over territorial claims in the Mediterranean and drilling activities for potential hydrocarbon resources. The repeated deployment of Turkish drill ships in areas claimed by Greece and Cyprus has infuriated their governments and prompted the European Union to introduce a sanctions framework for persons and entities involved in November 2019.
Ankara maintains that the areas of drilling activities, located adjacent to its coastline but also to Cyprus and several Greek islands, are part of its continental shelf. Turkey says the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognised internationally only by Ankara, has a right to a share in hydrocarbon reserves off Cyprus.
Hydrocarbon resources in the region are not the toys of Greek Cypriots, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said in Cyprus on July 20, the anniversary of Turkey’s invasion of the north of the island in 1974. Turkey would resolutely defend its territorial rights in the eastern Mediterranean, he said.
The Abdulhamid Han is a so-called seventh-generation drill ship. It is undergoing pre-service work at the Taşucu port. The ship was purchased in November to join Turkey’s fleet of the Fatih, Yavuz and Kanuni. The 238-metre-long vessel has a maximum drilling depth of 12,200 metres and a maximum operational depth of 3,600 metres, according to an infographic by the Energy Ministry.
