Page 12 - Euroil Week 07 2020

EurOil POLICY EurOil
Drilling and challenges in the East Med
EAST MED
Turkey has bought its third drillship, escalating East Med tensions.
LAST week, Turkey bought its third drillship for nearly $40mn as tensions regarding gas explora- tion in the Eastern Mediterranean heat up. Hav- ing bought the rst two vessels from Norway, Turkey purchased the “Sertao” drillship from the UK for much less than its market price.
The predicted market value of Sertao was around $120mn, but Port Talbot o cials in the UK wanted a quick sale, as the ship had been sitting unsold in the Welsh town for nearly two years. The drillship was built by Samsung in South Korea. e vessel had been used by Brazil’s Petrobras between 2012 and 2015.
e Marshall Island- agged drillship has a length of 227 metres, a width of 42 metres and a dra of 12 metres, and can reach down to 11,400 metres of depth and drill at 3,000 metres. Since spring 2019, when Ankara sent two drilling ves- sels – the Fatih and the Yavuz – to the Eastern Mediterranean, work has been ongoing in the region.
Athens and the Greek Cypriot administration have opposed Turkey’s moves in the Mediterra- nean and have threatened to arrest the drillships’ crews, enlisting EU leaders to also condemn Tur- key’s activities. Turkey has consistently contested the Greek Cypriot administration’s unilateral drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean, asserting that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(TRNC) also has rights to the resources in the area.
ese moves came at a time when President Akinci’s Northern Cyprus government – which is dependent on Turkey, but has a di erent, secu- lar, democratic and plural heritage – has engaged in a war of words with Turkey, stating that he did not want his island state to be subsumed into a greater Turkey. He may be referring to recent initiatives from Ankara, including a campaign of creeping Islamic in uence, characterised by mosque building, the establishment of Koranic schools and the removal of evolution from the curriculum.
A full-blown Turkish military takeover of the north of the island is unlikely but not impossible; Akıncı was quoted as saying that the prospect of Crimea-style annexation was “horrible” and against Turkey’s own interests.
A peace deal on Cyprus might smooth rising regional tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, the president suggested. Last summer Akıncı proposed that Greek and Turkish Cypriots should co-operate over oil drilling activities, sharing revenue from hydrocarbon discoveries. But the Greek Cypriot government has rejected a proposal from Ankara for all sides to cease explo- ration until a settlement is reached, saying this contravenes international law.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 07 20•February•2020