Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Turkish Factor in `Leviathan' and `Aphrodite' Energy `Wars'

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Turkish Factor in `Leviathan' and `Aphrodite' Energy `Wars'

    TURKISH FACTOR IN `LEVIATHAN' AND `APHRODITE' ENERGY `WARS'

    http://noravank.am/eng/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=6462
    03.05.2012


    Sevak Sarukhnyan
    Deputy Director of `Noravank' Foundation,
    Head of the Center for Political Studies, Candidate of Science
    (Political Science)

    Finding vast reserves of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean has
    turned this region into a stage of new energy and political
    contradictions. On the one hand Israel and Cyprus, in which waters the
    reserves were found, and on the other hand Turkey, which wants to
    consolidate its positions in the Mediterranean, tend to protect their
    claims on the gas sea reserves.

    `Leviathan' gas field as a source of energy security of Israel
    Leviathan gas field, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea in
    135km from the Israeli Haifa, was discovered in 2010 by the American
    Noble Energy Company, which concluded contract with Israeli government
    back in 2008 on initiating joint gas and oil exploration in the
    Mediterranean. The gas reserves found in 2010 can be considered rather
    impressive as, according to Noble Energy the total natural gas
    reserves in this field are estimated up to 450 billion m3 which makes
    it one of the biggest gas fields in the world. The importance of
    Leviathan for Israel is conditioned by the fact that it will exempt
    the Jewish state from the energy dependence on Egypt, which imports
    exports gas to Israel. Taking into consideration that the political
    processes going on in Egypt since 2011 can bring to power `Muslim
    brothers', who are of radical anti-Israeli orientation, discovering
    and processing of a gas field of its own has become for Israel an
    issue of paramount national importance.

    On the other hand Israel is interested in reducing the level of energy
    cooperation with Turkey, which has not proved to be a realizable
    partner for Israel recently and tends to strengthen its positions in
    the Middle East and with this purpose it widely uses local Islamists.
    A gas field, which has reserves counting 450 billion m3, may provide
    Israel consuming maximum 3 billion m3 of gas annually with gas for the
    near 100 years. This will be a sound solution of Israel's energy
    security issue and ensure the energy independence from Egypt and
    Turkey.

    At the same time it should be mentioned that Leviathan also has rather
    big oil reserves, the volume of which is not cleat yet. According to
    preliminary research there are about 500 million tons, which turns
    this field into crucial oil factor. This can become important not only
    for Israel but for the whole region either as Israel will not be
    dependent on Azerbaijani oil and Turkish Ceyhan port any more. The
    latter, according to the Turkish plans, should become the biggest
    energy hub in the region, the importance of which is conditioned by
    the dependence of the Mediterranean region on the Caspian oil. This
    dependence may simply disappear thanks to the Leviathan.

    `Leviathan' development
    For Israel, which does not possess appropriate means for the
    development of the gas field and production of the gas, it is
    important from whom it will receive help for making necessary
    investments in the gas field. The consortium, which was established
    for the development of the oil field, consists of small companies,
    which cannot provide appropriate investments due to the scantiness of
    means.

    `Leviathan' development consortium

    Due to this reason it is eagerly discussed what real chances Noble
    Energy Company, which has $15 billion capitalization, has for the
    development of Leviathan. According to the opinion of the American
    analyst Jim Fink published by authoritative Investing Daily
    periodical1 this American company, with its headquarters in Texas, is
    obliged to cede its positions to a bigger company, which would be able
    to invest proper money for the development of the gas field and gas
    production.

    It is obvious that Leviathan will attract new investors to the region
    and those investors may be the biggest oil and gas companies. The
    latter are closely connected with the western governments and in some
    of the companies the biggest shareholders are the members of the
    Jewish communities. Selling the share of Noble Energy to some big
    energy company, which would be able not only to provide technical
    backup of the project but also ensure necessary political support,
    taking into consideration aggressive policy of Turkey directed to
    obtaining the share of its own in Aphrodite and Leviathan, can become
    a natural continuation of the ongoing negotiations. But before
    referring to the Turkish interests let us turn to the Cypriot
    Aphrodite gas field, which is, according to the geologists, natural
    continuation of Leviathan and it has bound Israel and Cyprus
    politically.

    `Leviathan' and `Aphrodite' gas fields

    `Aphrodite' gas field as a guarantee of economic security of Cyprus
    Aphrodite gas field, which is a continuation of the Israeli Leviathan
    but is situated in the Cypriot maritime zone, was discovered in 2011
    by the same Noble Energy Company. The amount of gas there is
    considerable. According the geological exploration there are about
    400-600 billion m3 of gas and about 300 million tons of oil. If we
    take into consideration that Aphrodite and Leviathan are two parts of
    the same gas field, we can state that this field is the biggest among
    those which have been discover over recent ten years.

    After discovering Aphrodite Cyprus will, most probably, become a big
    energy carriers supplier, taking into consideration first of all the
    fact that the Republic of Cyprus does not have big consumer market,
    which is conditioned by an absence of industry in the country.

    For Cyprus the discovered gas and oil supplies can become a guarantee
    of countries independence and sovereignty. After the economic crisis
    in Greece the financial and economic situation in Cyprus worsened as
    the Cypriot economy and financial system are directly dependant on
    Greece. The bankruptcy of the latter can result in the bankruptcy of
    Cyprus as well, because alongside with the immigration of the Greek
    population, the emigration of Muslim, mainly Arab migrants to the
    country has grown, especially after war in Iraq2. A new wave of
    emigrants to Cyprus is also expected from Syria where the political
    crisis may even deepen ethnic and religious contradictions and cause
    new wave of migration to Cyprus.

    In this aspect the Cypriot authorities may use big oil and gas supply
    for the economic development and curbing migration of Greeks from the
    country. It is clear that considering all this Cyprus is ready to wage
    struggle for protection of its rights on newly discovered fields even
    if the other party is big and influential Turkey.

    Turkey and fields in the Mediterranean
    Since 2010 Turkey has been contesting rights of Cyprus and Israel on
    managing gas and oil fields discovered in the Mediterranean. As we can
    see from the map brought above, those fields are so far from the
    Turkish coast that one can state without any analysis that the Turkish
    claims are simply absurd. But Ankara is of other opinion and adopted
    policy which can complicate development of the gas and oil fields
    discovered by Israel and Cyprus and creation of an appropriate
    infrastructure.

    Turkey contests the fact that these fields are situated in the waters
    which are not divided between the neighboring countries. Though in
    2010-2011 Israel and Turkey adjusted the principles of delimitation of
    waters and signed a document on that delimitation, Turkey continues
    contesting Israeli and Cypriot rights.

    In June 2011 the Minister of Energy of Turkey T. Yildiz stated that
    the Republic of Cyprus has no right to export gas without adjusting
    the issue of re-division of the reserves with Ankara. And the
    president of the Turkish part of Cyprus Dervis Eroglu stated that
    though the gas and oil fields were situated near the southern shore of
    the island they could not be developed only by the Greeks as they are
    of general importance for the whole island3.

    On September 8, 2011, after the conclusion of Israeli-Cypriot
    agreement on delimitation, the Turkish prime-minister Erdogan in his
    interview to Al-Jazeera while speaking about Leviathan stated: `Israel
    has begun to declare that it has the right to act in exclusive
    economic areas in the Mediterranean,' meanwhile Israel `will not be
    the owner of this right'4. During the same interview Erdogan
    threatened that Turkish navy can set control over any part in the
    Mediterranean where Turkish interests are contested. The statement of
    the Turkish prime-minister evoked a wide response in Israel where it
    was taken as a hostile act and a threat. The Minister of Intelligence
    of Israel Dan Meridor called Erdogan's statement `risky and serious',
    adding that Israel was ready to face any challenge.

    The former Israeli ambassador to Turkey Alon Liel who is today
    considered to be one of the most authoritative Israeli analysts, in
    his interview regarding Erdogan's statement explained that in his
    opinion the main reason of such an approach of the Turkish side was
    rather stirring up of the Israeli-Cypriot cooperation (which is
    characterized not only by economic but also by military components)
    than the gas and oil fields. According to Liel after discovering huge
    reserves of oil and gas Israel will built a big port on the territory
    of Cyprus in cooperation with the local government and this port will
    serve for exporting oil and gas to the international markets. In his
    opinion this is the main reason of concern for Turkey as such a big
    port constitutes real threat to Ankara's strategy5, among the
    provisions of which the suppression of the Greek part of the Cyprus
    and turning Turkey into a main port hub are mentioned.

    Against the background of Turkish threats Israel without any concern
    spent the end of 2011 deepening partnership with Cyprus and Greece
    which aimed to set cooperation in energy and other strategic areas. In
    November the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel Dani Ayalon
    visited Athens; while speaking about the main goal of the negotiations
    he said: "We're going to talk about making Greece and Cyprus
    distribution centers for Israeli gas in Europe, which needs to
    diversify its sources."6

    Israel has been continuing the policy directed to the deepening of
    relations with Greece and Cyprus in recent months either, especially
    after Turkey's military gamble in December 2011.

    Israeli-Cypriot military alliance
    On December 20, 2011 Turkish naval forces unexpectedly started naval
    trainings in the proximity of Aphrodite and Leviathan and it could be
    seen from the Israeli and Cypriot ships which were carrying out
    geological exploration that Turkish forces trained scenarios of
    attacks on small static vessels (the type of vessels the Israelis and
    Cypriots had there). This was regarded by both Israel and Cyprus as a
    threat which was followed by the statement of the Minister of
    Infrastructure of Israel U. Landau that they would continue their
    works and that they were ready to respond to any attack. On the next
    day after that incident Israel stated that it abolished a $90 million
    cost contract on supplying LOROP systems for the Turkish military
    aircrafts.

    However, Israel's real military and political response to Turkey
    followed in 2012. In February, at the negotiations between the
    president of Cyprus and prime-minister of Israel, for the first time,
    the issue of establishment of factual military alliance between Israel
    and Cyprus was discussed on the highest level. According to Jerusalem
    Post's military analyst Yaakov Katz the main topic of the negotiations
    held in February was the deployment of the Israeli military air base
    on the territory of Israel in order to protect gas and oil fields in
    the Mideterranean7. Military air base, most probably, will be deployed
    at `Andreas Papandeu' air base in the south-western part of the
    island. According to UPI establishment of not only military air base
    but also deployment of a naval base, which would protect Cypriot oil
    fields from possible Turkish attacks, is crucial for Cyprus8.
    Currently, according to different Israeli and Greek non-official
    sources, including DEBKA, Israel and Cyprus initiated drafting of the
    agreement on creation of the military and political alliance.

    While analyzing Turkey's aggressive policy a lot of attention should
    be paid to the policy of the United States. Though Washington calls to
    embark on negotiations in case of aggravation of the situation and
    settle the issue peacefully, the United States, nevertheless, provides
    support to Israel and Cyprus. According to DEBKA, on December 20,
    2011, before the Turkish side started its naval trainings the US
    Secretary of State H. Clinton during her talks with the Minister of
    Foreign Affairs of Cyprus E. Kozakou-Marcoullis advised to go full
    steam ahead with gas drilling and ignore Turkish harassment9. Most
    probably, the support of H. Clinton served a ground for the Minister
    of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus to criticize Turkey during his address at
    Woodrow Wilson Center; according to him Ankara is responsible for
    deepening of contradictions in the region. As one of the participants
    of the meeting wrote in his blog this was hailed by the audience.

    It is obvious that Washington stood by Israel and Cyprus in the
    Mediterranean crisis. As for Israel everything is clear, and
    concerning Cyprus there are two main incentives directing Washington.
    The first one is to restrain Turkey's growth and curb strengthening of
    the latter in the region. The second one is, taking into consideration
    the fact that Noble Energy will cede its share to bigger companies,
    ensure that these companies will be American and not Russian.
    Especially if we take into consideration that deep cooperation has
    existed between Moscow and Nicosia.

    Anyway, it is obvious that the contradictions in this region will
    deepen which will be furthered by general instability in the Near
    East. New developments which can cause aggravation of both energy and
    military-political contradictions and formation of new military and
    political alliances are expected in the years to come.

    1Jim Fink - Israel's Huge Natural Gas Discovery. Investing Daily // 21
    January, 2011.

    2Fatima El-Issawi and Myria Georgiou - Media use at the crossroads:
    Nicosia // Journalism 2010 #11: P. 758-763.

    3Hürriyet Daily News | 9/6/2011.

    4Simon Henderson, Turkey's Threat to Israel's New Gas Riches,
    Washington Institute, September 14, 2011.

    5Ethnan Bronner, Threat by Turkish Premier Raises Tensions With
    Israel// New York Tomes, September 9.

    6Israel ups gas field guard, plans exports // UPI, November 23, 2011.

    7Israel seeks Cyprus base to guard gas fields// Jerusalem Post,
    February 9, 2012.

    8Israel tightens Med defense links over gas // UPI, January 11, 2012.

    9Turkish warships shell narrow water between Israeli and Cypriot gas
    fields // DEBKAfiles, 25 December, 2011.

    `Globus' analytical journal, # 4, 2012

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Another materials of author

    -POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAN AND POSSIBLE IRAN-US COLLISION[22.03.2012]
    -IRAN AND DEVELOPMENTS IN SYRIA[26.01.2012]
    -ON REGIONAL ENERGY DEVELOPMENTS[05.12.2011]
    -IRAN: DOMESTIC POLITICAL AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS[26.09.2011]
    -POLITICAL PROCESSES IN IRAN: IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE [21.07.2011]

Working...
X