Turkish offshore gas deal with Libya upsets Mediterranean boundaries - WORLD OIL / BLOOMBERG

Turkey's claimed EEZ in darker blue; in brown the illegal agreement

6 DEC 2019

Selcan Hacaoglu, Firat Kozok

ANKARA (Bloomberg) - Turkey and Libya officially approved a contentious maritime deal that may fuel an energy showdown in the gas-rich waters of the eastern Mediterranean, where both countries are at odds with Greece.

The Nov. 27 preliminary agreement demarcates an 18.6-nautical mile (35-kilometer) line that will form the maritime boundary separating what will be the two countries’ respective exclusive economic zones. Libya’s presidential council and Turkey’s parliament approved the memorandum of understanding, Anadolu Agency said Friday. It is now expected to be filed with the United Nations.

“This agreement also amounts to a political message that Turkey can’t be sidelined in the eastern Mediterranean and nothing can be really achieved in the region without Turkey’s participation,” Cagatay Erciyes, a senior foreign ministry official in charge of maritime and aviation boundary affairs, said on Thursday.

Cyprus petitions The Hague to safeguard offshore rights - REUTERS

DECEMBER 5, 2019 / 10:50 AM

ATHENS (Reuters) - Cyprus has petitioned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to safeguard its offshore mineral rights, its president said on Thursday, upping the ante with neighbor Turkey which disputes its claims.

Cyprus’s internationally recognized government discovered offshore gas in 2011 but has been at loggerheads with Turkey over maritime zones around the island, where it has granted licenses to multinational companies for oil and gas research.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said Cyprus is committed to protecting its sovereign rights with every legal means possible.

“Our recourse to The Hague has that very purpose,” he told journalists in Nicosia.

Deal to develop LNG infrastructure and supply in Cyprus reached - CYPRUS MAIL

December 3, 20196Jonathan Shkurko

An agreement to sign a contract on developing the necessary infrastructure and the supply of liquified natural gas (LNG) in Cyprus has been finalised.

The goal is to be able to use LNG in the market for electricity purposes by the end of 2021.

The deal follows lengthy negotiations between the Natural Gas Infrastructure Company (Etyfa), the Natural Gas Public Company (Defa) and the joint venture JV China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co Ltd and Metron SA, which will carry out the project.

The government gave the go-ahead to finalise the deal on November 22 during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in which President Anastasiades made it clear that Defa must go ahead with the procedures for the provision of natural gas in Cyprus.

The final process of examining and signing the complex agreement will take place this week.

Egypt condemns Libya-Turkey Mediterranean agreement - ENTERPRISE

Sunday, 1 December 2019

Egypt, Greece, Cyprus denounce Turkey-Libya agreement to redraw Mediterranean maritime boundaries: The Egyptian government has condemned as illegal the signing of two agreements on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean and security cooperation between Turkey and Libya. 

The agreements — signed between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Libyan PM Fayez Al Serraj in Istanbul on Wednesday — have “no legal effect” since the 2015 Skhirat peace agreement only grants the cabinet the power to sign legally-binding international agreements, Egypt said. The maritime boundaries agreed by Libya and Turkey remain unclear. Greece and Cyprus also denounced the agreement as illegal under international law, the Associated Press reports. The fallout comes amid heightened tensions over oil and gas drilling in the eastern Mediterranean.