TURKEY: OIL EXPLORATION TO BEGIN IN MEDITERRANEAN

Ankara, 14 March (AKI) - The Turkish Petroleum Corp. (TPAO) will begin prospecting oil in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean off the Turkish coast, particularly around Antalya, Mersin, and Iskenderun, and an international tender process will be launched this month, TPAO's president Saim Dinc, announced on Wednesday."We hope to see foreign partners beside us in July or August. Oil exploration will start this year," he told Turkey's Anatolia news agency.

According to Dinc, TPAO will conduct seismic works in deep waters of the Mediterranean, particularly in the seabed off Antalya, which lies to the west of Cyprus and off Egypt, this spring and summer.

"We hope that we will get good results from these seismic works, and launch bigger and more expensive projects in 2008 and 2009. We also continue searches in the Black Sea," Dinc added.

Turkey had 300 million barrels of proven oil reserves as of January 2006, according to estimates by the Oil and Gas Journal.