Tensions rise as Turkey tenders for oil search

TURKISH oil company TPAO has opened a tender for oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, it said on its website late on Sunday, a move likely to increase tensions over Cyprus.

The proposal covers the same parts of the eastern Mediterranean as a tender launched by Cyprus in February.

“We don’t know if this is true. If it is, it is another illegality committed by the Turkish side,” Government Spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis said yesterday.

The winner of the Turkish tender would carry out two dimensional seismic studies on a 4,000 km area in the Mediterranean. Studies will continue for one year after the contract is signed, TPAO said.

TPAO said if bidders wanted, they could also make an offer for exploration in the Black Sea on Turkey’s north coast.

Turkey expects leading international energy companies to bid in its May 23 tender, but consortiums are not allowed.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.