Turkey Seeks Agreement With Syria on Offshore Energy E&P

Turkey is planning to reach an agreement with the new government of Syria on maritime cooperation and offshore E&P, the nation's minister of energy said in an interview this week.

The deal would allow Turkey's oil and gas companies to begin exploring for energy resources off Syria's coast, and the two governments hope to conclude an agreement sometime next year, energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar told GDH. The specific deal would expand upon a current framework agreement, and would likely bear fruit further down the line, he said.

Turkey's state energy firm TPAO owns two seismic ships and six drillships - four active vessels (Fatih, Yavuz, Kanuni and Abdülhamid Han) and two recently-bought vessels that are slated for restoration (West Dorado and West Draco). Its activities have recently focused on productive Black Sea exploration wells, but Turkey also has a strong interest in waters off the coast of Northern Cyprus, hotly contested with the Cypriot government in Nicosia. Agreements to drill in Syrian waters would expand on those opportunities, and further anchor Turkish presence in the region. Any future revenue would bolster the new Syrian government's resources in its efforts to stabilize and rebuild the nation's economy, ravaged by years of civil war.

The Eastern Mediterranean holds some of the world's most promising offshore resources for natural gas, and recent drilling campaigns are producing results. This week, Chevron, Shell and NewMed Energy took a decision to begin ordering production equipment for the Aphrodite field in Cypriot waters, which could produce up to 800 million cubic feet of gas per day. The partners anticipate a final investment decision on the field in 2027. The long-delayed announcement brings Cyprus' offshore-gas ambitions closer to realization, putting it in the same club as Egypt and Israel, which have already tapped massive reservoirs of their own.