Oil company to start drilling at Turkish Cyprus site

Turkey's state-run oil company is set to start drilling for oil and gas in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) under an agreement signed in 2011. The Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) will start drilling at a field in Gazimagusa with a ceremony to which Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz, Turkish Cypriot President Dervis Eroglu and Prime Minister Irsen Kucuk will attend. TPAO has said it planned to drill as deep as 3,000 meters at the well named "Turkyurdu-1". An agreement on the delineation of the continental shelf between two countries in the East Mediterranean was signed last year by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Dervis Eroglu of TRNC in New York. The agreement was signed following a Greek Cypriot move to start offshore drilling for natural gas and oil in the southeast of Cyprus Island. TPAO began geophysical research and seismic data collecting studies on behalf of TRNC on September 26 by the vessel named "Piri Reis".