CYPRUS IS closely monitoring Turkish actions with regard to hydrocarbon exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, and is in contact with both the European Union and Greece, President Demetris Christofias said yesterday.
He was commenting on news reports that TPAO, Turkey’s national oil and gas corporation, has invited potential partners to explore and exploit blocks in the eastern Mediterranean, including in areas which the Republic regards as falling inside its own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“The situation is being closely monitored by the Republic,” Christofias told newsmen. “We are in touch with the European Union and with Greece of course, as this is an issue of direct concern to Greece, and we are coordinating in order to deal with any possible interventions or even threats by Turkey in our EEZ.”
In late February, TPAO invited tenders for possible exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in 11 blocks in the eastern Mediterranean, purporting to hold licenses for the plots.
One of the plots, designated by TPAO as “block 4321,” lies partially within a maritime area which Cyprus regards as falling within its EEZ in line with international law.
The plot is located some 50 nautical miles northwest of Paphos and close to the Greek island of Kastellorizo, and would therefore cut right into the (theoretical) respective EEZs of Greece and Cyprus.
Cyprus and Greece have not signed an agreement delimiting their mutual EEZs.
Responding to TPAO’s announcement, on April 4 the Foreign Ministry issued a warning to international oil companies against working with the Turkish company.
The warning came as Cyprus was named by investment bank UBS as a possible site for an LNG terminal to receive gas from recently discovered fields off Israel.
“TPAO purports to hold licenses for exploration/exploitation of hydrocarbons in 11 blocks in the eastern Mediterranean,” the Foreign Ministry noted.
But it added that Cyprus “has not granted any license or any rights to TPAO” regarding Block 4321, which Nicosia regards as part of its EEZ.
“The license that TPAO purports to be holding has apparently been granted by the Republic of Turkey,” the ministry said, adding that Ankara has shown “complete disregard” for the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The ministry said Cyprus, in conformity with the UN law, has entered into agreements with three of its neighbours [Israel, Egypt and Lebanon] over the delimitation of maritime borders in the region, but not with Turkey.
As a result, the ministry said, it is “simply unacceptable” for Turkey to offer licenses that would “pre-empt the outcome” of future negotiations in view of achieving such an agreement.
“In light of the above,” the ministry cautioned, any company which “would attempt to engage in the aforementioned area…would infringe sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus guaranteed by international law. The Republic of Cyprus reserves all its rights and will take any necessary action to protect its interests against any trespassers.”
The absence of an EEZ agreement between Greece and Cyprus is precisely what Turkey is seeking to exploit, explained an international relations expert.
“Essentially, Turkey is trying to step into the vacuum,” Christos Iacovou told the Mail. “The absence of an agreement to delimit an EEZ between Greece and Cyprus has created a grey zone, which raises the prospect that this void might be filled by an EEZ agreement between Turkey and Egypt.”
Recently the Egyptian government had decided to initiate talks with Ankara for defining their EEZs – an area extending from Turkey’s southern coastline to Egyptian shores and overlapping the Greek island of Kastellorizo. But the talks never got underway after the fall of the Mubarak regime.
Turkey does not recognize that Kastellorizo has a continental shelf. The Law of the Sea (1982), of which Turkey is not a signatory, states that any inhabited islands possess a continental shelf.
“This eventuality [of a Turkish-Egyptian agreement] would not only result in the loss of natural wealth south of Kastellorizo and east of Crete, it would also constitute a key jigsaw piece in the Turkish strategy of questioning Greek sovereign rights in the Aegean,” said Iacovou.
He nevertheless forecast that no oil majors would respond to TPAO’s calls for exploration in the eastern Med – not for the time being at least.
“Ankara is testing the waters, as it were. But I doubt that any oil company would get involved in an area not governed by international or bilateral treaties.”
Meanwhile former Turkish Cypriot strongman Rauf Denktash has warned that Greek Cypriot plans to drill for gas in the island’s offshore territory would jeopardise ongoing peace talks – or worse.
“This attempt to find out whether there is oil and to do something about it is an event that jeopardises the talks because the Cyprus problem has not been settled,” Denktash said in a telephone interview with Mail correspondent Nathan Morley.
“We have a right in everything that is found, in or around Cyprus,” he stated. “If they [Greek Cypriots] continue to do something actively in the area I am sure that Turkey will not allow it and Turkey will have to interfere, if necessarily militarily – they will send their warships.”
