Turkey is intrigued in Libya’s offshore exploration offer, according to the energy minister

Turkey’s Energy Minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, expressed interest in a proposition from Tripoli to conduct energy exploration offshore Libya on Wednesday.

“Libya has extended an offer to collaborate with our seismic vessels in the offshore environment.” In all honesty, we are quite amenable to this. Therefore, we are capable of conducting geophysical operations in the Libyan offshore,” he informed the state-owned Anadolu news agency.

In 2020, Turkey, a NATO member, dispatched military personnel to Libya to provide training and assistance to a Tripoli-based administration in its fight against the Libyan National Army, which is led by eastern commander Khalifa Haftar. Egypt and Greece disputed the maritime demarcation accord that was reached with Tripoli later that year.

Egypt and Greece are opposed to the preliminary accord on energy exploration that Ankara and Tripoli signed in 2022.

Bayraktar also stated that Turkey was interested in other ventures in Libya and was in search of the “appropriate project and partner.”

Greece, which is also a NATO member, has been at variance with Turkey regarding maritime jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean. In recent years, relations between Ankara, Greece, and the European Union have improved as tensions have abated, despite the fact that disputes over hydrocarbon exploration strained ties.

Bayraktar also stated that Turkey was interested in gas reserves off Egypt, with whom it has recently begun to repair relations after a decade of animosity. He stated that the two nations were engaged in an initiative related to Cairo’s gas procurement that involved Turkish floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) ships.

He also stated that Ankara intended to dispatch its Oruc Reis exploration vessel to Somalia by October in order to conduct seismic work there as part of a hydrocarbon cooperation agreement between the two countries.