Turkey to start oil exploration alone in eastern Med

Turkey's state-run oil firm TPAO plans to start offshore oil exploration on its own in 2013 in the Iskenderun-Mersin region of the eastern Mediterranean, after it failed to attract applications for joint exploration licenses, officials said.

“Companies are concerned about stability in the region. Because of this they did not enter into the process that TPAO started. TPAO will start exploration in 2013,” one of the Turkish energy officials told Reuters.

Turkish officials said in March that 11 firms had showed interest in exploring in the Iskenderun-Mersin region: Chevron, Total, Petrobras, Statoil, ConocoPhillips, OMV, RWE, Perenco, Genel Energy, BG and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co., or Kufpec.

Turkey and the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus are locked in a row over who has the right to tap hydrocarbon deposits in the eastern Mediterranean