For the last month and a half, tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean have escalated due to unilateral moves from Greek Cyprus, which has been commissioning Western energy companies to explore hydrocarbon resources in the Eastern Mediterranean in an area it declared its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). However, Ankara's reactions and measures in the area have prevented these moves since it consider them to be a violation of the sovereign rights of Turkish Cyprus. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated Turkey's determination to continue protecting its and Turkish Cyprus's rights to natural resources in the region at a ceremony in Ankara Tuesday.

Greek Cyprus has been trying to exclude Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Turkey, which has been conducting seismic surveys in the area and exercising its legal rights in accordance with international maritime law. The government in the south of the island last month commissioned Italian energy company ENI, which declared the discovery of a potentially sizable gas field off the southwestern coast close to Egypt's Zohr deposit, which is the largest-ever discovered in the Mediterranean. However, Turkey immediately deployed warships to the region and prevented the Italian energy firm from continuing its operations in the region. As a result, ENI's drilling vessel left the area.

The disregard for Turkish Cyprus's rights in the region did not stop with the ENI vessel. Following the Turkish Navy's blockade of ENI, early in March, vessels from U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil and state-owned Qatar Petroleum consortium were reported to have arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean to conduct offshore drilling activities.

Speaking during an inauguration ceremony to launch natural gas services for 101 districts at the Presidential Palace complex in Ankara, Erdoğan said that Turkey's recent stance regarding offshore drilling activities off Cyprus "had hopefully been instructive for some who saw an opportunity to start unilateral moves in the region when Turkey is engaged in anti-terrorism operations elsewhere."

All steps in the waters surrounding Cyprus should be taken through the participation of both Turkish and Greek parties, including investments and the share of discovered resources, Erdoğan said.

"Turkish and Greek Cyprus should form a joint committee for drilling activities and both sides should get their fair share of the island's natural resources based on their populations," the president said. He further reiterated Turkey's resolution to protect its and Turkish Cyprus's rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in terms of hydrocarbons.

he also announced that Turkey's first drilling vessel, which has the most cutting-edge technology in its field of operation with a width of 36 meters and a weight of 51 gross tons, will soon depart to start drilling operations in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup took place after decades of violence against the island's Turkish community and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including the latest initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K. that collapsed in 2017.

In order to decrease its dependency on external resources and to meet rising energy demand as a result of steady economic growth, Turkey has been carrying out energy investments and projects and diversifying its resources. Over the past 15 years, energy investments have reached TL 172 billion ($43.8 billion) and public investments totaled TL 41.3 billion. Investments in natural gas distribution was TL 11.2 billion.

Erdoğan, Putin to attend groundbreaking ceremony of Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant

Erdoğan said that Turkey aims to reduce its energy dependency, and the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, the country's first, will begin this year.

"President [Vladimir] Putin and I will jointly participate in the groundbreaking ceremony," Erdoğan said, explaining that they also spoke about it during a phone call to congratulate Putin's on his re-election in Russia on Monday.

Erdoğan and Putin are expected to meet in Turkey in the first week of April. The two leaders will chair the seventh meeting of the Turkish-Russian High-Level Cooperation Council.

Later, the two presidents will reportedly lay the foundation for the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, which will cost an estimated $20 billion.

The first unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, which will have four reactors, will be launched in 2023, while the other units will be commissioned one by one in the following years. Accordingly, the plant will reach full capacity in 2026.

With four reactors, each with an installed capacity of 200 megawatts, the plant will generate an average of 35 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually when it reaches 4,800 megawatts.

Another nuclear power plant project is currently underway in Turkey's Black Sea province of Sinop, and the project is run by a French-Japanese consortium. The Sinop nuclear power plant will have a 4,480-megawatt capacity.

Turkey's energy imports amount to roughly $55 billion annually and its energy demand is among the fastest-growing in Europe. Ankara aims for at least 10 percent of its power generation to come from nuclear energy in less than a decade to cut dependency on natural gas.</s>* VANGUARD NATURAL RESOURCES INC - ‍REPORTED AVERAGE PRODUCTION OF 362 MMCFE PER DAY IN Q4 OF 2017 REPRESENTING A 7% DECREASE​

* VANGUARD NATURAL RESOURCES INC - ‍HAS IDENTIFIED ADDITIONAL ASSETS TO BE ACTIVELY MARKETED IN FIRST HALF OF 2018​

* VANGUARD NATURAL RESOURCES- ‍ IS EITHER ACTIVELY MARKETING/CURRENTLY RECEIVING BIDS TO DIVEST PARTS OF PERMIAN BASIN, GULF COAST AMONG OTHER PROPERTIES​

* VANGUARD NATURAL RESOURCES INC - ‍ BOARD APPROVED AN INITIAL CAPITAL EXPENDITURES BUDGET FOR 2018 OF $160.0 MILLION​

* VANGUARD NATURAL RESOURCES INC - ‍INTENDS TO RELEASE A REVISED 2018 CAPITAL EXPENDITURES BUDGET AND OTHER GUIDANCE WITH RELEASE OF ITS Q1 RESULTS​

* VANGUARD NATURAL RESOURCES QTRLY ADJUSTED NET LOSS ATTRIBUTABLE TO COMMON AND CLASS B STOCKHOLDERS/UNITHOLDERS $0.48 PER SHARE/UNIT​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</s>Using Vendors to Get the Most Out of Global Market Access Resources

As the importance of market access activities increase for many companies, global market access resources are growing to support payer engagement and health economics research. Because of the growing pressure on market access teams, many companies are turning to third-party vendors to aid with certain functions. Vendor involvement is increasing common, especially in pricing decisions and other activities that peak during the launch window.

Specialized vendors with expertise in patient-reported outcomes and other clinical data can also provide significant value for teams with stretched resources. Cutting Edge Information’s Global Market Access Strategies report analyzes global market access resources and structures for teams from various regions and company sizes. Figure 1 shows the percentage of surveyed teams that outsource specific market research activities.
• Health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) is the most commonly outsourced activity.
• It is the only subfunction where over half of surveyed teams outsource a portion of the work.
• Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is the second most frequently outsourced subfunction with half of surveyed teams using vendors.
• Payer relationship management is the least outsourced subfunction with just 8% of surveyed teams.
• This is likely due to the need to establish strong relationships between the payers and the company directly. Using a vendor to manage payer relationships could potentially weaken the relationship between the two parties.

For small companies especially, the assistance with product pricing and launch sequencing can be extremely helpful. During the launch period these teams are often strained as is, so companies may turn to vendors to provide detailed market research on competitor pricing and regulatory guidelines around the world. Large companies will more commonly use experienced HEOR vendors to support products that are approaching launch as well as ones already on the market. Vendors skilled in medical record databases can add significant value to teams working on real-world evidence and other outcomes-based research. Properly utilizing third-party vendors can help teams to maximize their global market access resources.

To learn more about Cutting Edge Information’s Global Market Access Strategies report, download the report summary here.</s>Baku. 21 February. REPORT.AZ/ Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Foreign Minister Ozdil Nami called on the world to "indoctrinate" the Greek Cypriot administration to continue negotiations over the Cyprus issue.

Report informs referring to the Turkish media, In a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday in Ankara, Nami said TRNC hopes 2015 will be the year for a solution over the long-standing problems over the island.

"We don't want Turkish Cypriots to pay for the deadlock over the negotiations anymore and want the international community to indoctrinate the Greek Cypriot administration to solve the issue," Nami said.

Nami also warned of a stalemate situation over the divided island, saying that if the international community is "unable to give the Greek Cypriot administration the necessary warnings, 2015 will also be a lost year."

Nami said that Turkish Cypriots want the "potable water project" from Turkey to be a "peace project."

"We have already extended our hand to Greek Cypriots about the project, which will finish soon," he said.

The long-awaited potable water supply to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is about to finish. The "Alakopru" and "Gecitkoy" barrage construction was completed for the "Northern Cyprus Water Supply Project," which will provide the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus with water for the next 50 years.

The investment cost of the barrages is approximately $37 million and the project will supply around 130 million cubic meters of water to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus every year.</s>Baku. 17 April. REPORT.AZ/ President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a phone call to President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 16.

President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the President and people of Turkey on the successful conduct of a referendum on amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey and on the majority of the population`s voting for these amendments. The President described the results of the referendum as the Turkish people`s great support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan`s policy.

The heads of state expressed their confidence that friendly and brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey will continue to successfully develop in all areas.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asserts his nation will secure Northern Cyprus' access to natural hydrocarbon resources off the Cypriot coast. The comments come amid disputes as to sovereign rights and access to offshore resources on the island.