2018 Cyprus gas dispute

Çavuşoğlu said during his interview with the Greek newspaper Kathimerini that Turkish Cypriots have "undeniable rights" to the Cypriot EEZ. Egypt's Foreign Ministry reacted by warning Turkey not to contest the 2013 deal and Egyptian economic interests in the region, adding that any attempts to do so would be confronted. The Cypriot government officials have emphasised that any future benefits are for all Cypriots, including the Turkish Cypriots, but only after a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem. On February 16, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi stated that the Turkish blockade of its drill ship, Saipem 12000, was out of Eni's hands and that the issue was being discussed by involved parties. In November 2018, the partnership of the Cypriot government and US company ExxonMobil successfully began carrying out hydrocarbon exploration, escorted by US Navy ships, with Turkey remaining passive.

Background

In the early 1970s, the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) gave oil companies permission to search the island's waters for hydrocarbons, and the first exploration started in 1977. Earlier, in 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus, leaving in its wake an unresolved ethnic dispute and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) occupying the northern part of the island, which is only recognized by Turkey.

In 2002, the Turkish Navy prevented Northern Alliance, a ship operated by a RoC-commissioned Norwegian company, from exploring the Cypriot EEZ. In 2003, the governments of Cyprus and Egypt signed maritime border agreement delineating their respective EEZs. Cyprus also signed a similar agreement with the government of Lebanon in January 2007. Later that same month, the RoC defined thirteen zones (named "Blocks") in its EEZ, and invited tenders for eleven of them in the following months. Turkey, a non-signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, claims Block 3 of the Cypriot EEZ as part of its continental shelf.

In November 2008, a Turkish Navy vessel was involved in a standoff with two ships operated by Norwegian company Petroleum Geo-Services, a day before the Turkish Petroleum Corporation was given Ankara's permission to explore waters claimed by the Cypriot government. Three days later, the RoC found Malene Ostervold, a Norwegian-flagged ship commissioned by Turkey, surveying the region's waters. Ankara believes the Turkish Cypriot community should be allowed to benefit from the island's offshore resources. In 2014, Turkey deployed two warships to the Cypriot EEZ and started conducting seismic surveys in the region. Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades responded by suspending unification talks with his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Derviş Eroğlu. During a trilateral summit with Cyprus in Cairo, Egypt and Greece expressed their disapproval of the Turkish moves. They also outlined plans for energy cooperation in the eastern Mediterranean. Ankara responded by stating that the Turkish Navy would apply the rules of engagement should it encounter any warship in the region.

In 2015, the Zohr Field was discovered by Eni in the Egyptian EEZ, setting off a gas exploration race in the eastern Mediterranean. Zohr also revived the Cypriot gas industry's potential to be part of regional projects, such as a gas pipeline to Europe. Other initiatives include a pipeline to Egypt's decommissioned liquefaction plants and shipping the produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Egyptian terminals to foreign markets.