ANKARA, July 17 (WNM) - Turkey will send a fourth ship to the eastern Mediterranean to conduct seismic research for oil and gas around Cyprus, Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Tuesday.

Turkey currently has three ships around Cyprus, including two drilling ships. In a tweet, Donmez said the seismic research vessel Oruc Reis would be sent to the Mediterranean after completing its current activities in the Marmara Sea.

The Times of London reports:

Fatih Dönmez, the Turkish energy minister, announced yesterday that the seismic exploration ship Reis — Turkish for “chief”, the nickname given to President Erdogan by his supporters — will head for Cypriot waters after it has finished its duties in the Sea of Marmara.

It will join another exploration vessel and two drilling ships operated by Turkey’s state petroleum company in the Republic of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which is internationally recognised as the sovereign territory of Nicosia.

Turkey claims that its own coastal shelf overlaps with the EEZ, and insists that Turkish Cypriots should share in the proceeds of any gas extractions. The drilling ship Fatih — meaning “conqueror” — has already begun drilling to the west of the island.

The Yavuz is off the northeast coast after being sent out of port in Antalya by a military band and F-16 fighter jet flypast last month. The exploration vessel Barbaros Hayreddin — named after a 15th-century Ottoman admiral — is directly south of the island.