Cyprus-Forum.com

[SKI-preo]

All the media reports regarding Turkey's alleged engagement of a Norwegian Research Ship to drill off Cypriot territory (EU territory-LOL) fail to provide the details of the ship.

Norway has ratified the Law of the Sea and relies on the law in its North Sea Hydrocarbon mining & fishing industry. The Norwegian Government claims it does not have any knowledge of the details of any ship alleged to be involved in the drilling.

There number Norwegian Companies owning research vessels is limited. I think it may be this one:

[Piratis]

This appears to be a publicity stand by Turkey who is now trying to save face after her threads of sending their navy to stop Cyprus drilling proved to be empty.

If there was natural gas or oil in the sea between Cyprus and Turkey the Turks would have been pumping it out of the sea already. What did it stop them doing it until now? Their respect of the sovereignty of Cyprus? Or maybe it took years of negotiations with the "trnc" until they came to an agreement about how to delimit "their" zones?

Drilling is a very expensive process and only if there is a good change of finding large enough amounts of natural gas or oil would a company take a financial risk to drill. So the Turks might now make "agreements" and "research" in an attempt to save face, but there is nothing more than that.

[Hermes]

The only place Turkey will be drilling is up its own backside. There is no "Norwegian research ship". No credible plans to extract oil from the north's seas and any company that tried to do so would face legal challenges. This is not the age of piracy on the high-seas where you can just go and plunder resources where you please. Erdogan has been told to lay off Cyprus's EEZ and to save face he's announced a "deal" with the illegal entity that isn't worth the paper its written on.

[SKI-preo]

Yesterday the Turks realised that Norway won't touch them with a barge pole:

On Thursday, Turkish officials announced that a Turkish research ship will set sail for the Mediterranean to start oil and gas exploration.


From Wednesday to Thursday this week...Maybe Norway is now part of Turkey.


From Kathimerini:

Turkey on Thursday announced that Piri Reis, a research ship, would leave for gas exploration off Cyprus on Friday. But a senior US official who wished to remain anonymous told Kathimerini that Erdogan assured US President Barack Obama that Ankara has no intention of escalating the situation further.

Hugh Pope, an Istanbul-based expert with the International Crisis Group think tank, also doubts that the tiff will escalate into an actual clash.

“You will observe that Turkey is making its point with military support for its activities in what are effectively Turkish-Cypriot waters -- that is, a place where the Turkish armed forces have worked unimpeded for 37 years,” he said.

Turkey is pretty much on its own as the EU (keen to minimize dependence on Russian gas), the US and Russia have all given Nicosia the go-ahead with the drilling. But it may still take action to defend its status as nascent hegemon in the Muslim world -- especially since Israel, its newfound antagonist, is part of the equation.