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Turkey expands its energy search into troubled waters

A Turkish Petroleum engineer on the drilling vessel Yavuz Reuters/Murad Sezer
A Turkish Petroleum engineer on the drilling vessel Yavuz
  • Survey agreement with Somalia
  • Also working with Libya
  • Some analysts oppose deals

Turkey is stepping up its efforts to become a major player in hydrocarbons, preparing to conduct surveys off the coast of Somalia and working on an agreement with Libya to identify deposits in the Mediterranean. 

Alparslan Bayraktar, the energy minister in Ankara, announced last Friday that the seismic research vessel Oruç Reis would be dispatched to Somali waters by early October.

The ship, operated by the state-owned oil business Turkish Petroleum, will survey three undersea blocks under an agreement struck in March this year. 



The three blocks have a total area of 15,000 square kilometres, Bayraktar told reporters. Two are located 50km offshore. The third is about 100km off the Somali coast, with water depths of around 3,000m. 

To support Oruç Reis on its mission, the Turkish navy is to deploy warships in the region. Last week the Turkish parliament approved the basing of vessels in Somalia for two years. 

The naval deployment has been welcomed by the authorities in Mogadishu – but not by the leaders of the breakaway region of Somaliland, who have described the move as an infringement of its sovereign rights. 

The Oruç Reis research vessel at Haydarpasa Port in Istanbul. It will start surveying the undersea blocks off Somalia in OctoberBilge Kagan Kaya/Alamy via Reuters
The Oruç Reis research vessel at Haydarpasa Port in Istanbul. It will start surveying the undersea blocks off Somalia in October

Ankara is also close to sealing an agreement with Tripoli for Turkish vessels to survey areas of Libya’s coastal waters for oil and gas deposits, according to Bayraktar.

There could still be obstacles, however. Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding on energy co-operation with the national unity government in 2022. 

This was struck down by a court in February, on the grounds that the provisional government in Tripoli did not have the authority to commit Libya to long-term economic obligations. 

Survey efforts could also incur the ire of Mediterranean neighbours, particularly Greece and Egypt. 

In 2019 Turkey and Libya signed a pact establishing maritime economic exclusion zones in the Mediterranean that other countries see as infringing on their own extended territorial waters and continental shelf claims. 

Energy professor Dr Şenay Yalçın, dean of Bahcesehir International University Batumi, says the Libya deal is important and will help to expand Turkey’s reach in the Mediterranean – but it is the agreement with Somalia that offers the best opportunities to improve Turkey’s economy and its soft power. 

“Under the Somali deal, Turkey will share its capabilities on searching and extracting natural gas and oil,” he told AGBI. The work will “be carried out as a partnership and brought to the world market”.

Expanding into Africa will also help Turkey achieve its goal of becoming an energy hub, Yalçın said.

“The natural gas and oil that will be extracted means Turkey would both guarantee its future hydrocarbon needs and as an energy hub it will be able to liquify the natural gas and sell it to European markets.”

Not all energy analysts support the Somalia plan, however. Some believe Turkey’s energy interests would be best served closer to home. 

Turkey has invested heavily in seismic research ships to be deployed in the eastern Mediterranean, said energy policy and strategy expert Necdet Pamir. 

The surveys in Somalia “will neither contribute economically or politically to Turkey”, Pamir said. “Instead of going that far, why not improve your relations with Syria or Lebanon? The Libya deal is good as we have a riparian border with them. But where is Somalia?”

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