The Turkish drillship Abdulhamid Han began drilling at the Yorukler-1 well on Wednesday, Anadolu news agency reported, according to CNA.

“We are determined to follow up on the happy news from the Black Sea with new good news in the Mediterranean this time. With the sweat of our engineers and the prayers of our nation, may the fate of our ship be good and its drilling fruitful,” Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Fatih Donmez said in a Twitter post.

The new Turkish drillship was sent to the first station of its mission, 55 kilometres off the coast of Antalya, on August 9, with a ceremony attended by Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Donmez said the ship arrived at the scene on August 10.