INTERNATIONAL agreements signed by Cyprus and activities to promote its financial interests have nothing to do with the ongoing efforts for a solution to the Cyprus problem, the Foreign ministry said yesterday.
The ministry was responding to statements from Ankara on last week’s agreement signed with Israel to delimit the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) between the two countries as part of exploration for oil and gas.
”Issues concerning the Republic of Cyprus and the exercise of its sovereign rights do not concern any other third state,” ministry said.
”Turkey does not have the right to dispute. On the contrary, it has the obligation to recognise the Republic of Cyprus. These conventions concern and benefit the Cypriot people as a whole. What is obstructing the Turkish Cypriots from benefiting from the initiatives of the lawful state is the illegal Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus. Therefore, Turkey should actively assist the efforts for a solution to Cyprus problem.”
Meanwhile Reuters reported yesterday that international oil and gas exploration companies are showing an increasing interest in the eastern Mediterranean, especially in the area off Israel and Cyprus, following large discoveries of natural gas in the region.
The head of Delek Energy said: “There’s no doubt that the discoveries have led to a change,” Chief Executive Gideon Tadmor told a news conference in Israel. “International companies are looking at the region, at Israel and at us. Israel and the Levantine Basin have become attractive to a lot of players.”
Delek’s subsidiaries Delek Drilling and Avner Oil are in a consortium led by Texas-based Noble Energy which discovered the Tamar gas field off Israel’s shores last year. With an estimated 238 billion cubic metres of gas, the field was the largest gas find in the world in 2009.
Delek and Noble have been producing natural gas from a smaller field south of Tamar since 2004. Tadmor said Delek intends to continue working with Noble in future ventures, saying the companies had an “important and strategic partnership”.
He said Delek Energy might also join Noble in exploring for natural gas offshore Cyprus. Noble received exploration rights from Cyprus in 2008 for one plot.
The Cyprus-Israel deal signed last Friday defines economic exploitation zones of the two countries. Noble Energy has exploration rights for hydrocarbons in a Cypriot offshore field, and in an adjacent one on the Israeli side of the sea boundary.
A US Geological Survey study this year said the eastern Mediterranean’s Levantine Basin could hold 3.4 trillion cubic metres of recoverable gas, and 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil — making it one of the world’s richest deposits.
“This is an historical window of opportunity,” Tadmor said. “It is in the interest of the country to accelerate development of the sector.”
Delek Energy is a subsidiary of Delek Group, a conglomerate controlled by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva that also has interests in the automotive, real estate and financial sectors.
