We are planning seismic surveys in the maritime areas of Libya, announced the Turkish Ministry of Energy, as reported by Manolis Kostidis from Istanbul.

The Turkish Minister of Energy, Alparslan Bayraktar, said: “There is a proposal by Libya to do offshore exploration in the areas of Libya, we see this issue warmly. We can go off the coast of Libya to do seismic surveys. We want to do research and onshore with the right partner we want to be in Libya.

Bayraktar also said construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant is being delayed because Germany’s Siemens Energy is not delivering key components needed for its construction by Russia’s Rosatom, which is looking for alternatives in China.

Although the Russian company has made alternative agreements with Chinese companies to produce corresponding components, the fact that Siemens Energy does not deliver these components will delay the opening of the first reactor by a few months, the energy minister told Anadolu.

Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company, is building the nuclear power plant in Akuyu, in Turkey’s Mediterranean province of Mersin, under a deal with Ankara.

Turkey, a NATO member, originally planned to commission the first reactor in 2023. But that was delayed. Last year, nuclear fuel was loaded into the station’s first power unit for the first time.

In July, President Tayyip Erdogan said Germany was not allowing the export of some components needed for the Akuyu station, making them wait at customs.

“This has bothered us a lot. I reminded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of this during our bilateral meeting,” Erdogan told reporters on the plane he returned from a NATO summit in Washington.