Oil Discovered Near Dead Sea

JERUSALEM, Jan 24 (Reuters) – An Israeli oil exploration group said on Sunday it has found indications of oil in drilling near the Dead Sea.

But the group said it was not yet clear if there were commercial quantities of oil at the Tzuk Tamrur 4 site.

“A preliminary analysis found the target with oil-bearing sandstone,” it said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The site was drilled to a depth of 2,040 metres and the group plans to drill further to 2,150 metres.

When drilling is complete the group will then decide whether it was viable to pursue production tests, it said.

Zerah Oil and Gas Exploration (ZRAHp.TA) owns half of the exploration group, with Delek Drilling (DEDRp.TA) and Avner Oil Exploration (AVNRp.TA) owning 25 percent each. Delek and Avner are units of conglomerate Delek Group (DELKG.TA).

Zerah’s shares were up 14.7 percent in afternoon trading. Delek Drilling’s shares were 0.2 percent lower and Avner’s shares were down 1 percent, compared with losses of 2.3 percent on the broader Tel Aviv bourse. (Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Zion Oil Jan 15 Update

Zion Oil & Gas Newsletter

January 15, 2010

Dear Shareholder and/or Friend of Zion…

There has been quite some discussion by our staff regarding Zion’s weekly updates, as not every week contains ‘news to report’ on every part of our exploration license and permit areas.

The general feeling was that if there is nothing new to report then we should simply state that fact. There will be weeks with much to report and there will be weeks with little to nothing new to report.

Turning to the Book of Ecclesiastes (1:9-10), there is the well known comment:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
So, I am not going to continually repeat information that has already been sent to you. Where there is ‘no news to report this week’, I will write just that. But you can be certain that we are doing our best to move Zion’s exploration program forward… every day of every week.

This past week, Zion’s Founder and Chairman, John Brown, visited Israel together with Bill Ottaviani, a Petroleum Engineer who spent 25 years (1982 to 2007) working for Chevron Corporation in various countries and then two years (2007-2009) as Chief Operating Officer of Rex Energy, helping to build up Rex Energy in the USA. John Brown invited Bill Ottaviani to visit Israel as a prospective candidate for Zion’s Board and to review our operations and help advise us regarding some of the recommendations currently under technical evaluation.

Also, this week, we were visited by a team from ‘Halman-Aldubi Group’ one of Israel’s leading institutional Investment Management groups. Halman-Aldubi is the only company in Israel that deals with the management of provident funds on behalf of the public and is completely independent.

There was some Israeli Oil & Gas news released in Israel, this week. On Wednesday, January 13, 2010, the Jerusalem Post noted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered work to begin, this month, on a natural gas pipeline that will run from Dor Beach, south of Haifa, up to the oil refineries in Haifa. The significance of the Israeli government continuing to build the onshore natural gas pipeline infrastructure is that, in the event that we are successful in finding and producing commercial quantities of natural gas, the supply and distribution of that natural gas should be possible through the onshore pipeline system.

Here is this week’s operations update.

Drilling Operations at the Elijah #3 Well

The Elijah #3 site L to R: Bill Ottaviani, Richard Rinberg (Zion’s CEO), John Brown (Zion’s Founder and Chairman), Eyal Shuker (Investment Manager at Halman-Aldubi), Sandra Green (Zion’s CFO) and two analysts from Halman-Aldubi

The Elijah #3 well has been cased from the surface down to 6,706 feet (2,044 meters).

For the period from ’spudding’ the well (that is ‘beginning drilling operations’) to December 31, 2009, we drilled to a depth of approximately 9,186 feet (2,800 meters), at an average rate of penetration of approximately 131 feet (40 meters) per day.

As of this morning, the Elijah #3 well has been drilled to a depth of approximately 10,938 feet (3,334 meters).

Both last week and this week, we have been drilling in the Asher Volcanic Complex, composed of tuffs, weathered basalts, non-weathered basalts, red shales and red and tan mudstones.

The Ma’anit-Rehoboth #2 Well

The Ma’anit-Rehoboth #2 Well Site, showing the well head
No additional news to report this week.

The Ma’anit-Rehoboth #2 well was drilled to a depth of 17,913 feet (5,460 meters). The well penetrated a number of geologic formations that have been preliminarily deemed to have hydrocarbon potential and we retrieved a small quantity of crude oil. We are awaiting analysis of that oil and are evaluating recommendations by our engineering staff regarding further testing and possible completion procedures.

The Issachar-Zebulun Permit Area

No additional news to report this week.

We have been reprocessing all of the existing seismic and are planning to acquire, in March 2010, approximately 30 kilometers of field seismic, in the permit area.

Finally, I’ll note that we have begun preliminary discussions with Aladdin Middle East Ltd regarding the drilling of an additional well, in order to progress and implement our multi-well program.
“In your good pleasure, make Zion prosper…”
Psalm 51:18
Thank you for your support of Zion, and

Shalom from Israel

Richard Rinberg

CEO of Zion Oil & Gas, Inc.

www.zionoil.com

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Statements in this communication that are not historical fact, including statements regarding Zion’s planned operations, geophysical and geological data and interpretation, anticipated attributes of geological strata being drilled, drilling efforts and locations, the presence or recoverability of hydrocarbons, timing and potential results thereof and plans contingent thereon and rights offering are forward-looking statements as defined in the “Safe Harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements are based on assumptions that are subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unpredictable factors, many of which are described in Zion’s periodic reports filed with the SEC and are beyond Zion’s control. These risks could cause Zion’s actual performance to differ materially from the results predicted by these forward-looking statements. Zion can give no assurance that the expectations reflected in these statements will prove to be correct and assumes no responsibility to update these statements.

Contact Information

More information about Zion is available at www.zionoil.com or by contacting Michael Williams at Zion Oil & Gas, Inc., 6510 Abrams Rd., Suite 300, Dallas, TX 75231; telephone 1-214-221-4610; email: dallas@zionoil.comhone: 1-888-891-9466

‘Black Gold’ Rush Hits Israel’s Stock Market

The Israeli stock exchange (TASE) closed up yesterday. One of the shining stars in Israel’s trading economy? Oil and gas companies. Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported today:

“Over here, if anything’s hot it’s the oil and gas sector. After having gained 2,470% in the past four months, units of oil exploration partnership Modi’in rose another 9.1% yesterday. The company pulled off a NIS 20 million rights issue that took it of the Maintenance List of companies not in compliance with Tel Aviv Stock Exchange listing rules.” (read Haaretz article)

Israeli Billionaire Buys into Oil Business

Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner wants in on the ‘black gold’ rush in Israel. Israel Newspaper Haaretz reported this week:

“Nochi Dankner is one of the latest Israeli businessmen to become smitten with the dream of discovering oil and gas, and has linked up with Yitzhak Sultan of Modiin Energy with the aim of fulfilling that dream.

On Saturday night, Dankner’s IDB Development announced an agreement with the controlling shareholder in Noya Oil, which controls oil and gas exploration partnership Modiin Energy.

The agreement provides for Sultan to sell IDB Development slightly less than half his stake in Noya and half his holdings in the participation units and warrants of the partnership. IDB did not say how much Dankner will pay, but said the amount is not a material sum to the company. Noya is fully owned by Sultan, who is also chairman of IDB Finance Underwriters.” (link to Haaretz article)

Langotsky Suing For His Share

Last month we reported on Yossi Langotsky, “Israel’s Unlucky Oil Man”. Yossi has been part of Israel’s search for oil for fifty years. He played an integral role in last year’s natural gas discovery off the coast of Haifa; so much so that the two gas fields were named after his  daughter ‘Dalit’ and his granddaughter ‘Tamar’. But Yossi wasn’t a part of the planned profits from his discovery. The reason is that his financial partner, Benny Steinmetz, pulled the plug on their involvement two months before drilling began.

Now Yossi wants what he believes is his. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today:

“Geologist Joseph Langotsky is on a crusade to reclaim his rights in the Tamar and Dalit gas field exploration, which he himself initiated.

Langotsky will shortly be suing his former partner, mining tycoon Benny Steinmetz, over the loss of his rights to the Tamar and Dalit fields, where large reserves of natural gas were discovered last year. The fields are named for Langotsky’s daughter, Dalit, and granddaughter, Tamar.

Langotsky and Steinmetz had been the owners of a limited partnership, STX, which had a 5% stake in the exploration rights. But Steinmetz dropped out of the exploration partnership two months before drilling began and Langotsky, who was unable to find an investor to replace him in time, lost his rights.

Langotsky is believed to be seeking compensation equal to 1% of the project’s value – $60 million, based on the project’s assessed value of $6 billion.” (read more …)

Naphtali and Bubblin’ Crude?

A friend of mine, Tom Boulting at Charter Films, Ltd. (they’re the folks producing the Zion Oil movie) sent me a note this week about a passage of scripture – Deuteronomy 33:23. “And of Naphtali he said, ‘O Naphtali, sated with favor, and full of the blessing of the Lord, possess the lake and the south.’”

This was Tom’s question: “I know that the next verse refers to Asher and dipping his foot in oil and I may be stating the obvious, but isn’t naphthalene a hydrocarbon and where is ‘the lake’ and ‘the south’? This may be irrelevant, but I just came across it and wondered if you had noticed the Naphtali/naphthalene connection.”

Tom is a wonderful guy and a great filmmaker, but he’s not a scientist or a theologian. My first impression was that he saw the name of the ancient Israeli tribe ‘Naphtali’ and made a connection (that wasn’t there) with the modern term ‘naphthalene’ – a hydrocarbon solid. It’s just a coincidence that Naphtali and Naphthalene sound the same; the two words are separated by centuries, languages and cultures. But Tom is a friend and I wanted to explain the difference between the words. I didn’t want him making connections where there weren’t any. To prove my point I researched the words, their meanings and their root … boy, was I surprised! That ‘Naphtali’ and ‘Naphthalene’ sound the same may be a coincidence, but the more I looked into it, the more the ‘coincidences’ stacked up. At this point I’m not sure what to think of the Naphtali/Naphthalene connection but it’s a pretty interesting point to ponder.

Pulling apart the words

In Hebrew “Naphtali” means “my struggle” or “I wrestle”. It was the name Jacob’s wife, Rachel gave to her second son through her maid-servant Bilhah. Rachel was “wrestling” with big sister Leah in a baby making contest. Between the two sisters and their maid-servants, they produced twelve offspring for husband Jacob, all of whom would eventually become (with a little rearranging by G_d and Joseph’s two boys) the twelve (or thirteen) tribes of Israel.

“Naphthalene” is a two part ‘scientific’ word – “naphtha” (a broad term referring to any number of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures) and “lene” (a suffix defining the object as a derivative of the root preceding). In street terms, “naphthalene” means literally “derived from naphtha”.

Stay with me – we’re about to discover something interesting!

The word “Naphtha” (a broad term for liquid hydrocarbon products) comes from a Latin term for what we know today as petroleum (which is also Latin – petro = rock, oleum = oil).  The Latin “naphtha” comes from the Greek “naphtha”, again, meaning petroleum. Want to guess where the Greek “naphtha” comes from? The Greeks got their word for petroleum from the Arabs (“naft”) and Hebrews (“neft”)!

But you’re not going to find “neft” in the Bible. The ancient Hebrews knew about petroleum oil but they called it “chemar” – the closest English translation we have today is “bubblin’ crude”, Jed Clampett style. I kid you not, that’s what the ancient Hebrews called oil from natural seeps in the Promised Land – ‘bubblin’ crude’. Jed would have been proud.

As far as I know the word “neft” didn’t come into Hebrew usage until after the Babylonian captivity. Liquid hydrocarbon seeps were also a natural phenomenon in Babylon (modern day Iraq) and the Jews brought the Babylonian term back with them. Israeli’s still use the term today.

So, does the ancient tribe of ‘Naphtali’ have any connection at all with the modern term for a petroleum product? Or is the similarity in sound just a coincidence?

Here’s where the ‘coincidences’ start to stack up.

1. The name ‘Naphtali’ is still around; but it’s now spelled ‘Neftali’.

2. The tribe of Naphtali was given land in the far north, above the Sea of Galilee (the lake of Deut 33:23) and west of the Golan Heights. On Naphtali’s western border lies Asher (“he shall dip his foot in oil”) and on its southern border lies Zebulun (“he shall suck of the abundance of the seas and of treasures hid in the sand”) – both neighboring tribes with a prophesied promise relevant to our search for oil.

3. Today Naphtali’s land is home to the Hula Valley, the suspected site of significant gas reserves and currently under exploration license with Adira energy.

4. Naphtali’s territory sits next to Asher’s and its blessing (Deut 33:23) is recorded next to Asher’s (Deut. 33:24). Naphtali’s blessing states that he will be ‘sated’ (filled up) with ‘favor’ and ‘full of blessing’.

Add those ‘coincidences’ up and we may have another piece to the Great Treasure Hunt puzzle! As I said earlier, I’m not sure what to think of the Naphtali/Naphthalene connection at this moment, but it’s a pretty interesting ‘coincidence’. I’ll keep you posted as exploration unfolds in the land of Naphtali.

P.S. In her 1997 novel The Jewish War, Tova Reich’s character Heshie Finkel, a young mathematical genius, is charged with the task of deciphering the mystical significance of ‘neft’ in order to bring oil to Israel. After extended study and the counsel of an aged rabbi he has an epiphany that ‘neft’ will come to Israel with the coming of the Messiah. Reich, a secular satirist, was poking fun; she didn’t mean for the connection between ‘neft’ and the Messiah to be mystical or prophetic. But some truths have a way popping up even when you’re not looking for them. If she turns out to be right I’ll drop her a note.