Greater Middle East (bbabo.net), - Former Chief of Staff of the Turkish Naval Forces, Admiral Cihat Yayci, claims that $30 trillion worth of natural gas and oil is located north of Libyan maritime jurisdiction. According to him, the area specified in the memorandum of understanding recently signed between Turkey and Libya includes the richest offshore hydrocarbon deposits, Libyan Express reports today, October 7.
Last Monday, the Libyan side signed two agreements with Turkey. The deals were signed by Foreign Minister Najla al-Mankush and Minister of Economy and Trade of the North African country Muhammad al-Khavij, as well as their Turkish counterparts Mevlut Cavusoglu and Fatih Donmez.
The agreements reached have caused controversy at the local, regional and international levels, the newspaper notes.
The Turkish portal Haber 7 quoted Admiral Yayci as saying that Turkish ships could start seismic research and exploration within a few months. Regarding Greek objections to the agreement, he noted that Athens wants to "swallow up an area the size of four Cypriot islands in the Mediterranean."
Cihat Yayci, who is called the architect of the maritime agreement between Ankara and Tripoli, revealed the details of his meetings in Istanbul with representatives of the Libyan government.
“I explained to them with the help of maps and data that they had acquired a sea area of at least four Cyprus, or 40,000 square kilometers, rich in oil and gas,” he said.
At the same time, the former chief of staff of the Turkish Navy stressed the importance of starting exploration and drilling in the area between the east of the line drawn in the agreement delimiting the zones of Libyan-Turkish maritime jurisdiction and west of 28 degrees east longitude.
“We need to get to work immediately, as seismic surveys have not yet been carried out,” Yaiji said.
As bbabo.net reported, Egypt and Greece questioned the legitimacy of the agreement on joint oil and gas exploration signed earlier between Turkey and the Government of National Unity (GNU) of Libya.
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