Ankara plans to prospect, drill in Blue Homeland
Turkey’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday that Turkey will continue its research in the areas of its “own continental shelf” in the so-called Blue Homeland, which is a doctrine expressing Ankara’s claim in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.
In an interview with the Haberturk TV network, two days after the final inclusion of the theory and map of the Blue Homeland in Turkey’s new educational curriculum, he referred to the seismic surveys and drilling planned by Ankara, saying, “There are discoveries, we are drilling new wells.”
“The Mediterranean is the first step of our strategy to go to areas that have not been explored before with our ships. We have conducted eight deep-sea drilling operations in the Mediterranean. But the locations where we have drilled in the license areas granted by the TRNC (the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus) to Turkish Petroleum… and in the area of our own continental shelf, unfortunately, we have not made a discovery that reflects a significant economic size,” he stated.
He stressed that although, so far, Turkey has not been able to find deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean, that does not mean it has given up on the area.
“We will persistently and stubbornly continue these investigations throughout this area designated as the Blue Homeland,” he noted, while adding that Turkey’s priority is now to focus on the Black Sea, with the aim of exploiting the deposits that have been found.
At the same time. Ankara appears intent on starting cooperation with the Tripoli government, with which it signed the Libya-Turkey maritime memorandum.
“We have never ignored the Mediterranean. One pillar of our strategy in exploration and production is certainly exploration in our own fields, in our seas and on land. Another pillar is exploration abroad, particularly in Libya. We made an agreement with Somalia. We also have exploration plans in Somali seas, offshore,” Bayraktar said.
