Financial Mirror: Did Turkey scare the "big boys" away from Cyprus?

A mix of 15 bidders have applied for rights to explore nine blocks in the Cyprus offshore natural gas licensing round that ended on Friday. These include international heavyweights Total, Petronas, Gazprom, Marathon and ENI. 

However, some of the major players, such as BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron were not among those bidding to search for hydrocarbons south of the island and near Israeli gas discoveries, suggesting that Turkish threats may have succeeded to scare them away. 

Total and Italy’s ENI are already involved in other ventures in Turkey, with the French company invited by TPAO to bid for search licenses in the areas off Mersin and Iskenderun, while ENI is a partner in the South Stream and Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline to bypass the Bosphorus Sea.  MORE