Rv-Koca-Piri-Reis

Greek Foreign Ministry said a Turkish research ship has entered an area of the Greek continental shelf in the Aegean Sea, and it will formally complain to Turkey’s government. The ministry said the Piri Reis entered the area northwest of the island of Mytilene yesterday afternoon without having informed Athens, as it should have under the international law of the sea. The area is outside Greek territorial waters, but Athens claims the rights to potential undersea mineral and fossil fuel deposits. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/greece-to-complain-turkey-over-piri-reis.aspx?pageID=238&nID=16581&NewsCatID=351

THE TURKISH vessel Piri Reis should complete its exploration for gas and oil by tomorrow, Turkish press said yesterday. The Piri Reis has explored about 3,300km and needs at least two more days to explore a further 350km, the Turkish Cypriot press said yesterday. The vessel is thought to be operating in the vicinity of Block 12 within Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) where Noble Energy has been commissioned to drill by the Cyprus Republic. Huseyin Benli, the director of Turkey’s Institute of Marine Science and Technology, which owns and operates the vessel reportedly said that the Piri Reis had to moor in Famagusta because of bad weather and would resume as soon as the weather got better. Benli said that they would anyway remain off Cyprus’ coastline “because we have some obligations stemming from agreement we signed” with the ‘TRNC’. “If we are given new coordinates we will continue our exploration otherwise we will (hand the operations over) to the ship which will be rented from Norway,” Benli said. He was referring to the Norway-flagged Burgen Surveyor, owned by French company CGG Veritas which is conducting undersea research off Cyprus’ coast on behalf of Turkey.

The Turkish research vessel "Piri Reis", which left the port of Urla for the shores of Cyprus to conduct exploration operations in the continental shelf of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, will complete some operations in about 1,000 square kilometer-water area today, Anadolu reported. According to the agency, if the Turkish Petroleum Corporation gives the new coordinates for research, "Piri Reis" will start the second phase of exploring hydrocarbon deposits. After Nicosia began working to develop the shelf near the shores of the island, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara will explore for oil and gas in the exclusive economic zone of Northern Cyprus along with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Erdogan and President Dervis Eroglu of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) signed in New York on Wednesday an agreement on the delineation of the continental shelf between two countries in the East Mediterranean.