The fourth drilling ship Turkey has recently acquired will start its exploration activities in the summer of 2022, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said Thursday.
It is a seventh-generation ship equipped with the latest technology and has been added to the country’s inventory that consists of the Fatih, Yavuz and Kanuni drillships, all acquired over the recent years.
Turkey is currently carrying out exploration activities in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to the four drillships, it also has two seismic research ships, Oruc Reis and Barbaros Hayrettin Pasa, Donmez noted.
“There are five of these ships in the world, and we have one of them,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week, adding that it is capable of drilling at a depth of some 3,600 meters (11,800 feet).
Turkey’s announcement came a few days after the Search and Rescue Center (JRCC) issued a navigational warning (Navtex) concerning the appraisal well to be carried out by ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum in the “Glaucus” field in block 10 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Preparation works and drilling operations will be conducted from November 19 until January 30, 2022, in the area Turkey says is located within its continental shelf, JRCC noted.
For decades, Turkey has been at odds with Greece and Cyprus over competing territorial claims in the east Mediterranean, air space, energy, the status of some islands in the Aegean, and the breakaway Turkish state on the divided island of Cyprus.
In a statement last week, Greek Cypriot Energy Minister Natasa Pilides said the process would take two to three weeks and its results would be announced between February and March 2022.
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