Turkey advances gas pipeline plan to northern Cyprus as East Med rivalry grows
The Turkish energy minister said the country's oil and natural gas pipeline operator, BOTAS, has started the engineering work for the pipeline.
ANKARA — Turkey’s energy minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, said state oil and gas pipeline operator BOTAS has begun engineering work on a planned subsea natural gas pipeline to northern Cyprus.
Pipeline plans take shape: “We are working on a natural gas pipeline to the [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus],” Bayraktar was quoted as saying by local outlets on Wednesday.
Cyprus remains divided between the EU-member Republic of Cyprus and the breakaway north, recognized only by Ankara since Turkey’s 1974 intervention following a Greek-backed coup. Turkey, Greece and Britain remain guarantor powers under the island’s post-independence arrangements.
Turkey previously completed a subsea water pipeline to northern Cyprus in 2015, an approximately 80-kilometer link supplying freshwater from southern Turkey that is often cited as a model for similar cross-sea infrastructure.
