Turkey’s oil-and-gas drilling ship sails into eastern Mediterranean
Turkey announced the launch of an oil-and-gas drilling ship in the eastern Mediterranean amid tensions with several regional countries, including Egypt and Cyprus, over the energy wealth there.
CAIRO — Turkey announced Oct. 30 that it has started drilling for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean. Speaking at a ceremony for the launch of the drilling ship, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez announced that Turkish naval forces would take all of the necessary steps should the vessel face any disruption.
This comes against the background of existing tensions in the eastern Mediterranean region between Turkey on the one hand and Egypt, Cyprus and Greece on the other.
On Oct. 10, the three countries agreed to establish the Cairo-based Middle East Gas Forum in order to coordinate natural gas exploitation policies.
Also, Egypt signed an agreement with Cyprus on Sept. 19 to link the Cypriot Aphrodite gas field with Egypt's liquefaction plants for re-exportation as part of Egypt's bid to turn into a regional gas-and-oil hub. The pipeline is to start pumping gas into Egyptian plants by 2022 with a capacity of 700 million cubic feet per year (19.8 million cubic meters).
