In the next few weeks, Turkey is expected to press ahead with its first drilling in deep waters at the Alanya 1 target.
The Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), which manages the ‘Fatih’ drilling rig, has a contract with a large Norwegian ship owning company that is already involved in business in Cyprus.
On Wednesday night, a drilling support ship under the Norwegian flag, which is set to accompany the Turkish drilling rig, arrived at Antalya port, where ‘Fatih’ has been for more than a month. The support ship arrived at the port of Antalya from the anchorage of Las Palmas. It belongs to a large Norwegian company which is also represented in Limassol. The company also owns three specialised offshore support vessels under the Cypriot flag, which are based at the port of Limassol.
According to data published by technical staff of the Turkish Petroleum Society and the drilling rig, Turkey has been prepared for two drillings at the targets ‘Alanya -1’ and ‘Phoeniki-1’. The ‘Alanya -1’ target is in the eastern part of Antalya Bay, towards the well-known resort of Alanya. The exact spot of the drilling will be known with the issue of a Turkish Navtex for the drilling rig’s protection zone. The Navtex will be issued within the next few days and will probably include an area around 100 km north of Akamas. In this area the sea is about 2,600 metres deep: this coincides with statements by Turkey’s former minister of energy that the first drilling will be done at this depth. The second target, Phoeniki 1, is about 50 kilometres Southeast of Kastellorizo.
Meanwhile, the seismographic ship ‘Barbaros’ has been carrying out seismographic surveys northeast of Apostolos Andreas since April. Its surveys are expected to finish at the end of August.
