Turkey to continue East Mediterranean gas surveying until June 2021

Istanbul — Turkey has announced that its survey vessel the Oruc Reis will restart its seismic surveying of areas in the East Mediterranean on Dec. 29 and will continue through to June 2021.

Turkey's state news agency Anatolia reported late Dec. 22 that the announcement had been made via a new Navtex issued earlier that day, adding that the Oruc Reis will be accompanied by two offshore supply ships.

Anatolia gave no details about where in the East Mediterranean the Oruc Reis would conduct its surveying, but previous survey work has been conducted exclusively in areas claimed by Greece as part of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The announcement appears to come in response to the decision taken by EU leaders on Dec. 11 to impose additional sanctions on Turkey over its ongoing surveying in Greece-claimed waters and drilling and exploration work in areas claimed by Cyprus.

As previous Navtexes issued by Ankara have extended surveying activities by at most a few weeks, the announcement of a six-month survey period appears likely to be interpreted as a direct challenge to Brussels ahead of the next European Council meeting scheduled for March 25-26, and to put Turkish-EU relations under further strain.

In a statement following the Dec. 11 meeting, the European Council criticized Turkey's "unilateral and provocative activities" in the East Mediterranean and recommended the adoption of additional measures as part of a sanctions framework agreed in November 2019 that was extended for a further year on Nov. 6.

Those sanctions have to date only been applied once, in February this year, against Mehmet Ferruh Akalin and Ali Coscun Namoglu, the head and deputy heads of exploration at state owned upstream company TPAO.

Some EU countries, including Greece, have repeatedly called for more wide-reaching sanctions.

Turkey's foreign ministry responded to the measures announced Dec. 11 by accusing some unnamed EU countries of "abusing their membership" and pushing EU-Turkish relations into "a vicious cycle."

Previous work

Starting Aug. 10 the Oruc Reis spent four months surveying in waters to the south of Greek islands located close to Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

On Nov. 30 Turkish energy minister Fatih Donmez announced that the vessel had returned to the port of Antalya having collected 10,955 km (6,792 miles) of 2-D data.

The results of the surveys have not been announced.

According to statements by Donmez, seven of the wells drilled around Cyprus by Turkish drill ships failed to reveal economically viable reserves, with the eighth well drilled by Turkey's Yavuz drillship in waters south of the island producing "encouraging results."

Turkey has been looking to replicate the significant gas finds made by Egypt, Israel and Cyprus in the East Mediterranean.