ExxonMobil

Turkey's prime minister has renewed a threat against efforts to search for offshore gas around Cyprus.

Turkey opposes what it says are "unilateral" efforts to search for gas, saying they infringe the rights of Turkish Cypriots to the ethnically split island's resources.

The increased US naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean until the end of the month is seen as an indication of the concern triggered by Turkey's recent hostility in the region, which last month led to the suspension of Italian energy company Eni's drilling operations in Block 3 of Cyprus's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

US oil giant ExxonMobil intends to send two surveying vessels to Cyprus's exclusive economic zone in the face of Turkish pressure that has temporarily prevented Italian company Eni's drilling in Block 3.

Cyprus's energy minister said on Thursday exploratory drilling off the island's southern coast in Block 6 of the island's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) has shown indications of a potentially sizable gas deposit.

One more multinational oil giant is about to seek a slice from the Greek hydrocarbon pie after Total, ExxonMobil, Repsol and Edison, as Italy's ENI is preparing to enter the local market, according to sources.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said Turkey and Turkish Cyprus will respond in coordination to a French-Italian drill off southeastern Cyprus, which he mocked as a "so-called international tender."

British oil giant BP and energy-rich Azerbaijan on Sept. 14 prolonged their sharing deal for the Caucasus nation's largest oilfields until 2050.

"This time round, the contract is being signed on better terms for Azerbaijan," the ex-Soviet nation's President Ilham Aliyev said during a signing ceremony in the capital, Baku.

Cyprus's energy minister says exploratory drilling off the island's southern coast has discovered a small gas deposit that contains "less than" 0.5 trillion cubic feet of the hydrocarbon, not enough to make it commercially viable.

Turkey on Wednesday issued two navigational telexes (navtexes) to conduct research within Cyprus's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) southwest of Paphos, in a move certain to revive tensions in the region.

The government on Wednesday provided the locations of the three blocks - two off the coast of Crete and one in the Ionian Sea - that will be tendered for hydrocarbon exploration.

The block to be tendered for exploration in the Ionian Sea covers 6,671.13 square kilometers and is located north of the island of Cephalonia and west of Lefkada and Corfu islands.