Turkish Petroleum Corporation

The European Union has frozen plans to blacklist more senior executives at Turkey's state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), four diplomats said, in the clearest sign that a diplomatic offensive by Ankara this year is bearing fruit.

Seismic analysis activities will be conducted in a 10,000-square-meter area in the Black Sea for new natural gas discoveries, Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez told a group of journalists on March 3.

"We are aiming to drill a new exploratory well in one of the gas fields that is deemed to have potential," Dönmez said.

Turkey will invest 780 million Turkish liras (around $111 million) to build a subsea gas production facility, and a 155-kilometer-long pipeline connecting to a new onshore gas processing facility in Filyos, in the Zonguldak province along Turkey's western Black Sea coast, according to an environmental impact assessment application report for this three-phased integrated project.

Turkey will start using gas from the Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea in the first quarter of 2023, government sources told Anadolu Agency on Feb. 11. 

EU leaders at the start of a two day EU summit, in Brussels, 10 December 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/OLIVIER HOSLET/POOL

The decision allows the EU to penalize individuals and companies involved in planning and carrying out gas exploration in the East Med, with sanctions of travel bans into EU countries and asset freezes.

The European Union seems to be preparing a lukewarm response to Turkey's multifaceted aggression over the past two months as indicated by a draft of the conclusions of Thursday's leaders' summit, which Greece insists must include tougher wording.

Athens is bracing for a prolonged period of tension this summer in view of Turkish preparations to conduct exploratory drilling from the north of Rhodes all the way to the southeast of Crete in 24 plots that are included in a map published in the Turkish government's gazette outlining areas where Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has applied for exploration permits. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has sent letters to top EU officials protesting over Turkey's activities in the Eastern Mediterranean and the publication in the Turkish government's gazette of a map outlining areas of the Greek continental shelf where Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has applied for exploration permits.

The foreign ministers of Greece, Cyprus and Jordan held a video conference on Wednesday to discuss ongoing developments in the Eastern Mediterranean region and other issues.

In a statement, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said he had briefed his counterparts over Turkey's "increasingly provocative rhetoric and behavior which is destabilizing the entire region."

Ankara on Tuesday responded to a complaint from Athens concerning a map published in the Turkish government's gazette outlining areas where Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has applied for exploration licenses, including several within Greece's continental shelf, by insisting that these areas are within the boundaries Turkey has submitted to the United Nations.