Egypt: Turkey's seismic survey could encroach on our waters

Turkey’s off-shore drilling ship Fatih is seen anchored off the Tasucu Port in Silifke district of Mersin, Turkey on February 1, 2020 [Mustafa Ünal Uysal / Anadolu Agency]

Egypt said on Saturday that part of a seismic survey planned by Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean potentially encroached on waters where Cairo claims exclusive rights, according to report by Reuters.

An advisory issued last month by Turkey for the survey overlaps with Egypt’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), constituting “a violation and an attack on Egypt’s sovereign rights”, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

It did not give details, but said the potential encroachment came under point eight of Turkey’s advisory.

Seismic surveys are part of preparatory work for potential hydrocarbons exploration.

Read: Turkey temporarily suspends oil, gas exploration in East Med

The announcement of the survey escalated tensions between Turkey on one side and Greece and Cyprus on the other, amid conflicting claims to offshore hydrocarbon resources. Turkey has since indicated it could pause exploration operations pending talks.

Egypt is a regional rival of Turkey and has close relations with Greece and Cyprus.

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.