Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has inaugurated the country’s newest drilling ship that he said would be sent off the coast of Antalya province in the Mediterranean for hydrocarbon exploration.
The vessel, known as the Abdulhamid Han, is Turkey’s largest undersea hydrocarbon drill ship. The ship will operate 55 kilometers off the Gazipasa region of Antalya province in the Eastern Mediterranean, told the president while addressing the ceremony for the first mission of the drill ship.
This resumes Turkey’s halted hydrocarbon exploration outside the disputed waters, in the Mediterranean after two years. Turkey has not sent a drill ship to the eastern Mediterranean since the withdrawal of the Yavuz drill ship from contested waters in September 2020.
“The survey and drilling work we are conducting in the Mediterranean are within our sovereign territory. We do not need to receive permission or consent from anyone for this,” said President Erdogan.
About natural gas exploration, the Turkish president said: “Now, with four drilling ships and two seismic research ships, we are also engaged in this field”.
He said Türkiye has a “rare” drilling fleet in the world with its ships Fatih, Kanuni, Yavuz, and Abdulhamid Han.
Turkey is planning to finish the operations in the 10 wells required for the first phase of Black Sea gas and to start putting the natural gas acquired from there into service for the nation in 2023, told the Turkish president.
The launch comes at a time when long-running tensions between Turkey and Greece have risen again, with President Erdogan accusing Athens of arming islands in the Aegean Sea that have a demilitarized status. Athens, however, deny this.
About Abdulhamid Han ship
Abdulhamid Han ship is one of the five seventh-generation ships of advanced technology globally, with a maximum drilling depth of 12,200 m (40,026 ft).
It has a maximum operating depth of 3,600 meters (11,811 feet), a tower height of 104 m (341 ft), and a crew capacity of 200.
Turkey has not sent a drill ship to the eastern Mediterranean since the withdrawal of the Yavuz drill ship from contested waters in September 2020.