Page 11 - MEOG Week 31 2022

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

Turkey to send drillship

to East Mediterranean

EAST MED ANOTHER spat over maritime territory and (TRNC), recognised only by Ankara.
gas reserves between Ankara and Athens looks In July, Donmez said that the destination for
in prospect. Abdulhamid Han’s first drill under TPAO opera-
Turkish energy minister Fatih Donmez has torship has not yet been determined, noting only
announced that Turkey will dispatch a drillship that it would be in the ‘Blue Homeland’ – a 2016
for hydrocarbon exploration to the Mediterra- doctrine that lays claim to a 462bn-square km
nean Sea on August 9. swathe of sea that includes the country’s share of
The Abdulhamid Han, which joined the the Black Sea, much of the Aegean and the north-
country’s drillship fleet in May, has been sched- ern half of the Eastern Mediterranean, up to the
uled for the mission, Donmez said. southern coast of Crete.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend a Turkish Petroleum Corp (TPAO) two years
ceremony marking the departure and will reveal ago announced the discovery of an estimated
exactly where the ship is to conduct its drilling 320bn cubic metres (bcm) of gas at the Tuna-1
activities, the minister added. well in the Black Sea. This volume was upgraded
Speaking at the time the vessel was unveiled to 405 bcm two months later, with the field
in early July, Erdogan said it was important that named Sakarya.
“fully domestic resources” were used to make In June 2021, the company announced that
“historic” discoveries. it had found another 135 bcm in the Asmara-1
Turkey has previously sent its Yavuz drillship well, taking the total volume discovered so far at
to waters internationally recognised as Cypriot, Sakarya to 540 bcm.
claiming its right to explore in waters belonging Energy analysts await verification and con-
to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus firmed flows from the field.™

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