THE GOVERNMENT is monitoring Turkish plans for onshore oil drilling in the occupied north and aims to report such actions to the United Nations, Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis has said.

She said authorities have information that the drilling will take place either in the occupied village of Singrasi or near the archaeological site of Engomi.

Whichever the case may be, Marcoullis said, in the event these reports are confirmed the Republic would be reporting these “illegal acts” to the EU and other international organizations.

Earlier this month Turkish Cypriot daily Haberdar published what it claimed was the exact location of planned land-based drilling for oil and gas in the north.

The paper said the drilling site was in hilly terrain between the villages of Lapathos and Singrasi. It said the drilling operations – to be undertaken by Turkey’s national petroleum corporation TPAO – would get underway in late February.

Source: Cyprus-Mail

Published on February 3, 2012