NICOSIA, CYPRUS — In October, the government of Cyprus announced it was negotiating possible licensing deals with 15 companies to explore for natural gas in a deep-water zone off the island’s southwest coast. The government says it expects to sign four contracts early next year — raising deep concerns over the possible reaction of Turkey, which has never recognized the Republic of Cyprus or its maritime borders since the de facto division of the island in 1974.

“Turkey says it will not tolerate exploration and Cyprus says it will proceed,” said Hubert Faustmann, an associate professor at the University of Nicosia. “Neither side has blinked and they’re playing for great stakes.”

Aphrodite, as the gas field is named, was discovered a year ago, about 35 kilometers, or 20 miles, west of the Leviathan field, itself discovered a year earlier in Israeli waters. According to an initial survey conducted by Noble Energy, based in Houston, Texas, it could contain 5 trillion to 8 trillion cubic feet of gas, or 142 billion to 227 billion cubic meters, more than Cyprus could consume in a century.

In the initial discovery euphoria, there were suggestions that the development of the Eastern Mediterranean fields could help to stabilize one of the world’s most politically troubled regions.