Athens is closely monitoring Ankara’s plans to expand its fleet for hydrocarbon exploration and production.
Ankara has prioritized the Black Sea for its efforts to find gas and oil, with almost all its floating drilling vessels currently active in the region. The latest addition to their fleet is the seventh-generation vessel, the Abdulhamid Han.
According to Turkey’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, Ankara first focuses on the Black Sea, then moves on to the Eastern Mediterranean, and ultimately to the Aegean Sea. This decision has not gone unnoticed by Athens, which is concerned that if tensions between Greece and Turkey worsen, Turkey may resume exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In any case, the recent tensions south of Kasos, which were unrelated to operations on the continental shelf, reminded Ankara that the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean is sensitive and could spark a crisis at any moment.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) is developing hydrocarbon storage and off-loading capacities. In 2023, TPAO entered into an agreement with a Norwegian company to purchase a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit.
The FPSO unit set sail from Singapore about two weeks ago and is currently heading towards the Istanbul shipyards. For safety reasons, the route will involve sailing around Africa, through Gibraltar to the Mediterranean, bypassing the Suez Canal due to the risk of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Upon reaching Istanbul, the FPSO unit will undergo some retrofitting before being deployed at the existing Sakarya field in the Black Sea.
Additionally, Athens is interested in TPAO’s announcements regarding its investigations and operations in specific areas such as Libya, particularly in maritime areas within the boundaries set in the Turko-Libyan memorandum signed by Ankara and the interim government in Tripoli.
A few weeks ago, Turkey also announced an agreement with the Somali government for exploration off the coast of Somalia. However, in both cases, Ankara’s discussions with governments that do not represent all of their countries prove that the Turkish announcements primarily serve political expediency rather than actual exploration.
Vassilis Nedos
Source:Kathimerini
