Israel’s Levant Basin, How Much is it Worth?

Back in April I wrote that the United States Geological Survey (USGS) released a report that the Levant Basin contains 1.689 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 122.4 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas. The Levant Basin lies both onshore and offshore and includes most of middle and northern Israel and coastal Lebanon and Syria. The basin includes the exploration areas of Noble Energy offshore and Zion Oil & Gas onshore.

Most of the data the USGS report contained came from research conducted between 2000 and 2008 by Dr. Michael Gardosh, a researcher at the Geophysical Institute of Israel, and Dr. Yehezkel Druckman, who until a few years ago was Petroleum Israel’s Commissioner. Dr. Druckman now serves on the Zion Oil & Gas Board of Directors.

So in today’s dollars, how much oil and gas does the USGS say the Levant Basin holds in undiscovered resources? A friend ran the numbers for me:

Levant Basin Dollar Values
122 Trillion Cubic Feet Natural Gas	122,000,000,000,000
Price per 1000 Cubic Feet (6/22)	$4.79
Convert Trillion Cubic Ft	122,000,000,000
Total $ Value – Natural Gas	$584,380,000,000.00
1.7 Billion Barrels of Oil	1,700,000,000
Price per Barrel Oil (6/22)	$77.87
Total $ Value – Oil	$132,379,000,000.00
TOTAL VALUE – LEVANT BASIN	$716,759,000,000.00

That’s nearly $718 Billion. Most of the Levant Basin lies within the land and territorial water of Israel. Offshore, some of the ‘undiscovered’ the natural gas has been discovered and will be powering Israel in the next few years. Onshore, the ‘undiscovered’ oil, I believe, will be discovered soon.

Zion Releases Drilling Company Video

Zion Oil & Gas released a company video last week in which Bill Ottaviani (Zion’s President and Chief Operating Officer) and Richard Rinberg (Zion’s Chief Executive Officer) explain why Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. has decided to establish Zion Drilling, Inc. and purchase Aladdin Middle East Ltd’s 2,000 horsepower drilling rig, as soon as practicable. Filming took place in both Israel and Turkey, and gives us a chance to learn the strategic thinking behind some of Zion’s business decisions.

The film was shot and produced by British filmmaker Tom Boulting. Boulting’s company, Charter Films, Ltd. is also working on the full length documentary, “49:1 The Zion Story”. News on the making of the film can be found at www.zionthemovie.com.

Israel Gas Ignites Tough Talk From Neighbors

Israeli Natural Gas Find Keeps On Getting Bigger But Could Ignite Trouble

Vosizneias Tel Aviv – Israel’s natural gas bonanza in the eastern Mediterranean just keep getting bigger, with reserves currently pegged at around 25 trillion cubic feet.

That’s enough to guarantee the Jewish state, dependent on imported energy since it was founded in 1948, energy security for at least two decades.

The strikes at three fields, dubbed Tamar, Dalat and Leviathan, could even turn Israel into a gas exporter and transform its economy. There are indications that there’s oil down there as well.

But the offshore finds may become a casus belli (case for war) as Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbor and longtime battleground, lays claim to the gas fields as well.

Lebanon’s As-Safir newspaper reported June 8 that the biggest field found off Israel, Leviathan, extends north into Lebanese waters and could well aggravate tensions between the countries.

Under the headline “Israel prepares to steal gas fields in Lebanon’s waters,” the leftist daily said if Israel tried to siphon gas from Lebanese territory, Beirut would be forced to defend its resources.

One of Hezbollah’s top leaders, Hashem Safieddine, head of the Iranian-backed movement’s executive council, has declared it won’t allow Israel to “loot” Lebanese gas resources.

Israel’s military chiefs say Hezbollah currently possesses around 45,000 missiles and rockets, which could be fired at Israel’s emerging energy infrastructure centered on the port of Haifa.

The city was repeatedly hit by Hezbollah rockets during the 34-day war with Israel in July and August 2006.

These days, Hezbollah purportedly has long-range weapons that have greater accuracy and carry more destructive warheads than those used in 2006. These are capable of hitting just about anywhere in Israel.

In the event of renewed hostilities, and both sides are talking tough again, Israel’s energy installations would be prime targets.

Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri, has urged the Beirut government to move swiftly to start its own offshore exploration or risk Israel claiming whatever resources there are.

“Israel is racing to make the case a fait accompli and was quick to present itself as an oil emirate, ignoring the fact that, according to the maps, the deposits extend into Lebanese waters,” said Berri.

The speaker, who has submitted a parliamentary bill to launch exploration of Lebanon’s potential offshore reserves, declared: “Lebanon must take immediate action to defend its financial, political, economic and sovereign rights.”

Israeli officials insist that the gas fields lie within Israeli territorial waters.

However, the liberal Haaretz daily noted Tuesday, “Israel has yet to declare its exclusive economic zone, though this usually applies to what in the sea, such as fish, and not what lies under the continental shelf.”

It quoted Professor Moshe Hirsch of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, an expert in international law, as saying that problem could arise when the continental shelf is shared by more than one country.

But he maintained the gas lies squarely in Israel’s sector of the continental shelf and so there was no need top declare an exclusive economic zone.

The first strikes were made early this year at the Dalit field off Hadera, south of Haifa by a consortium headed by Noble Energy, a U.S. company with headquarters in Houston, which is working with three Israeli firms.

Tamar, 50 miles east of Haifa, was found in April. Last week Nobel raised its original estimate of the field’s size by 33 percent to 8.4 trillion cubic feet of gas.

But then came the discovery of Leviathan, double the size of Tamar at an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of gas, further off the coast.

Nobel said that total offshore reserves could top 30 trillion cubic feet, double Britain’s giant gas fields in the North Sea, with a conservative value of some $300 billion. Nobel is moving a drilling platform from the Gulf of Mexico to step up exploration.

Gas production is to begin in 2012. Israel is planning to build a liquefied natural gas plant near Haifa but it probably won’t go online until 2015.

The gas finds, particularly Leviathan, which may turn out to be even bigger, are “nothing short of a geopolitical gamechanger,” Gal Luft, executive director of the U.S.-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, wrote in Haaretz Sunday.

“Altogether the basin the eastern Mediterranean … could contain an amount of gas equivalent to one-fifth of U.S. natural gas reserves.”

Givot Olam Drills Successful Oil Well

Israel drills successful oil well

JERUSALEM, June 16 (UPI) — Israel’s Givot Olam Oil Exploration said its drilling explorations at its Meged 5 well near Rosh Ha’Ayin have been very successful.

As a result of the initial operations, Givot Olam Oil Exploration is returning its hydraulic fracturing equipment to its foreign suppliers, Globes reported Wednesday.

Since the Rosh Ha’Ayin test bore produced oil mixed with gas instead of a water flow the bore, Givot Olam Oil Exploration Director Shmuel Becker told journalists, “We’re returning the (hydraulic) frac(turing) equipment because there is natural oil flow in the well.”

Givot Olam Oil Exploration reported that the test bore produced an oil flow of 302 barrels over nearly 20 hours. Following expert analysis, based on the test bore site’s natural oil flow from the Meged 5 well, Givot Olam Oil Exploration decided to dismantle the hydraulic fracturing and propelling equipment at the wellhead and send it back overseas.

In light of the Meged 5 bore hole success, Givot Olam Oil Exploration has begun preparations for tests of section 6 of the well.

John Brown’s ‘The Oil of Israel’ Available on Friday

Zion Oil & Gas Founder John Brown’s book The Oil of Israel: Prophecy Being Fulfilled will be released from the printer on Friday June 11. In The Oil of Israel: Prophecy Being Fulfilled, Brown tells the story of his faith his journey and the vision he believes G-d has put on his life: to discover Israel’s oil.

In the Preface Brown writes:

“So, why did God choose Zion to discover the oil in Israel? The answer is I don’t know why, but He did, and I believe I was told by God that it was to fulfill His promises to Israel (Isaiah 14:24) (Zechariah 1:17) and to bless the body of Christ. (Isaiah 23:18 NIV) and Zion Oil only exists because of God’s faithfulness to Israel (Psalms 36:5, 89:1-5) and not because of my faith (Isaiah 25:1).”

The Oil of Israel: Prophecy Being Fulfilled will be available in bookstores and on Amazon this summer. To order copies now, directly from www.oilinisrael.net, click here.

The Oil of Israel: Prophecy Being Fulfilled

The Oil of Israel:Prophecy Being Fulfilled

The Oil of Israel: Prophecy Being Fulfilled

by: John Brown

78 pages; softcover

The Oil of Israel: Prophecy Being Fulfilled, the first book by Zion Oil & Gas Founder John Brown telling the story of Brown’s vision to discover the “Oil of Israel”. Includes Brown’s personal testimony and the scriptures that led to the search for Israel’s oil and the founding of Zion Oil & Gas. Brown shares his insights on true biblical faith and the vision and calling of Zion Oil. The book includes the full color maps of Israel’s ancient tribal boundaries and of Zion’s license area as well Zion’s progress to date in the search for Israel’s oil.

John Brown writes in the Preface: “So, why did God choose Zion to discover the oil in Israel? The answer is I don’t know why, but He did, and I believe I was told by God that it was to fulfill His promises to Israel (Isaiah 14:24) (Zechariah 1:17) and to bless the body of Christ. (Isaiah 23:18 NIV) and Zion Oil only exists because of God’s faithfulness to Israel (Psalms 36:5, 89:1-5) and not because of my faith (Isaiah 25:1).”

“Prophetically, I believe oil will be found on Zion’s leases.”
HAL LINDSEY

“John Brown, an evangelical Christian and founder and chairman of Zion Oil and Gas, believes that there is indeed oil in Israel.”
DR DAVID JEREMIAH

“This is such a vital, vital thing; we shouldn’t be surprised at all that God would save this for the end times and that God would save it for his chosen people Israel. We need to pray for John Brown, for Zion Oil and for all the people that are involved in this.”
Daystar Founder
MARCUS LAMB

“Suppose that a pool of oil, greater than anything in Arabia … were discovered by the Jews … This would change the course of history. Before long Israel would be able to independently solve its economic woes …”
DR TIM LAHAYE

“Israel? Proven reserves? Billions? When I read those words, the hair on the back of my neck stood up … By the time I sat down to write ‘Jihad’, I had decided to add a fictional oil strike – discovered by a fictional American investment
company working with a fictional Israeli company … Little did I know.”
JOEL ROSENBERG

“Dear John, I will continue to pray earnestly for the success and unlimited prosperity of Zion Oil in Israel. A major oil development in Israel would create geopolitical earthquake. I believe you have been called to the kingdom, ‘For such a time as this.’”
Most Sincerely,
Pastor John Hagee

78 pages; softcover:

Israel, Turkey Tensions Not Affecting Zion Oil

According to Zion CEO Richard Rinberg,  recent political tensions between Turkey and Israel are not affecting Zion’s work program or future plans. Zion Oil & Gas operates it exploration company in Northern Israel using a drilling rig and crew owned by Turkish drilling company AME. Future plans call for a new company, Zion Drilling, to to be formed between Zion Oil & Gas and AME.

Zion Oil & Gas has just released a corporate video detailing their exploration efforts and plans for the new drilling company. To view the video click here or on the photo at the top of this article.

In a recent letter to stockholders, Rinberg states that in spite of international tensions, Zion Oil and AME will conduct ‘business as usual’.

“I received a telephone call from a concerned stockholder asking about the recent event offshore Israel and its effect on the relationship between Zion Oil & Gas, Inc (in Israel) and Aladdin Middle East Ltd (in Turkey).

I have been in contact with Cetin Mumcuoglu, the General Manager of Aladdin Middle East Ltd, in Ankara, Turkey, and he is not concerned. International incidents will occur from time to time, but business continues without interruption.

He commented to me, “ We will continue with our business relationship even more strongly.”

Zion Oil & Gas and AME have excellent relations based on mutual respect and trust, so we expect that recent events will have little effect on our continuing business relationship.

Additionally, our Caesarea office and our petroleum exploration areas are in Northern Israel, well away from the Gaza area in Southern Israel, so everything is proceeding as normal.

At present, we do not anticipate that the recent event will have any material adverse effect on our business.”

Russia, Turkey: “Israel won’t get our gas”

By BLOOMBERG
06/08/2010 18:57

Russia, Turkey denies Israel fuel due to “economic considerations.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that they don’t plan to export natural gas to Israel via a new pipeline to Turkey.

“There is no such thing on our agenda,” Erdogan said at a news conference with Putin in Istanbul when asked about the gas.

Russia has held talks on shipping fuel to Israel from a pipeline under the Black Sea. OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly, is negotiating supplying the fuel, Gazprom chairman Viktor Zubkov said on March 22.

Israel may not need the extra gas, which could be transported to Syria or Lebanon instead via the planned Blue Stream-2 pipe, Putin said.

“The Blue Stream gas may not go to Israel because of economic considerations,” Putin said. “I don’t think Israel needs the gas because they found a reserve recently.”

Turkey has said it’s considering paring economic and military ties with Israel and has recalled its ambassador to the country after nine Turks were killed on an aid flotilla headed
for Gaza and intercepted by Israeli commandos last week.

Lebanon Speaker Urges Fast Action on Offshore Gas Reserves

(AFP) BEIRUT — Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday urged his government to begin exploring offshore natural gas reserves, warning that neighboring Israel planned to lay claim to the prospective resources.

“Lebanon must take immediate action to defend its financial, political, economic and sovereign rights,” said Berri, who has submitted a bill to launch exploration of potential offshore reserves.

“Exploring our options in this field is our best bet to pay off Lebanon’s debts,” he told reporters.

Lebanon’s national debt, among the highest in the world, currently stands at more than 50 billion dollars (41.6 billion euros), equivalent to some 148 percent of GDP.

“Israel is racing to make the case a fait accompli and was quick to present itself as an oil emirate, ignoring the fact that, according to the maps, the deposit extends into Lebanese waters,” he said.

In a statement on its website, Norway-based Petroleum Geo-Services recently announced it had explored Lebanese waters which contained “valuable information” on potential offshore gas reserves in coordination with the Lebanese energy and water ministry.

And US-based Noble Energy said on its website that it had discovered enough natural gas at the Israeli Tamar and Dalit offshore fields to meet Israel’s needs for years.

It also announced the Leviathan prospect, offshore Israel in the Rachel and Amit licenses, as its next planned exploration target in the region in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Lebanon and Israel remain technically in a state of war and have no diplomatic ties.

A Biblical Treasure Hunt Part 7

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(From “A Biblical Treasure Hunt, by Philip Mandelker)

(d) Biblical Parallelism. The common Biblical literary form parallelism, may provide additional support for the conclusion that the reference to SHEMEN in the Song of Praise may well be to “rock” oil and not olive oil. The verse reads “suck honey out of the rock and oil [SHEMEN] out of the flinty rock.” Most of the medieval European exegetes of the Sephardic (Spanish) and Ashkenazic (Rhine Valley) traditions, including for example, Rashi (Rabbi Solomon bar Isaac) (11th century), Avraham Ibn Ezra (12th century) and the Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yehiel) (13th Century), understand the reference to “honey” and “oil” metaphorically as reference to date palms and olive trees both of which grow in abundance in the rocky Land of Israel.

This agriculturally based interpretation of the rabbinical scholars living in rich agricultural areas of Europe is understandable (Rashi owned vineyards and was a grower of grapes in the Champagne region of France); but is it appropriate? The question arises in light of the phrase introducing the reference to honey and oil: “made him suck” or in Hebrew “VA’YA’NI’KEIHU”. Literally, “YA’NI’KEIHU” means the sucking of milk out of a breast, but it also means generically to draw out or absorb. This hardly seems an apt metaphor for the growing of trees out of earth, even though it may be argued that the root systems of trees suck up ground water for sustenance, which in turn enables their fruit to grow, and ground water generally underlies even rocky surfaces. The term, however, might well be appropriate for use when referring to sucking or drawing or pumping liquids out of rock formations above or below ground, in caves or subterranean strata – from Tiamat’s breasts and womb: the “blessings of the breasts and of the womb” of Jacob’s Blessing.

Interestingly, in his translation into Arabic and his interpretation of the relevant verse in the Song of Praise, the great Sa’adia Gaon does not refer to “honey” as being the honey of sweet dates, though date palms certainly abounded in Iraq. Rather, for the sage, honey is literally the honey of bees which were known to build their hives in rock crevices and caves of the Middle East and Israel. (Rasag Commentaries, at p. 151 n. 10; see also Olam Ha’Tanach, vol. “Devarim” [Deuteronomy] 32:13, at p. 240 at “VA’YA’NI’KEIHU DEVASH MI’SELA”.) This is a phenomenon which is still well known in Israel today, where bees continue to build their hives in the burial caves of Beit Shearim on the north-east flank of Mt. Carmel (see “Ha’aretz”, June 30, 2005, at p. A-18.) Regrettably, Sa’adia Gaon does not appear to address the term “SHEMEN” as appears in the following clause of verse 13, other than by an unexplained reference to “HALAV” or “milk”, which of course is also sucked out of its natural container – the breast. (This use of “milk” and “honey” may be a reference to the preceding chapter of Deuteronomy in which the Land of Israel is described as the “land of milk and honey.”  Deuteronomy 31:20. And, interestingly, in his translation of Deuteronomy 32:13, R. Sa’adia Gaon does reverse the verse’s reference to “honey” and “oil” to read “milk” and “honey”.) Thus, from Sa’adia Gaon’s reading, the parallelism seen in verse 13 of the Song of Praise can lead to the conclusion that the reference to “SHEMEN” may well be a reference to “SHEMEN ADAMA” or “SHEMEN AVANIM” – earth oil or stone oil: As “DEVASH” or honey is deposited in crevices of surface rocks in the porous matrix of a bee-hive to be sucked or otherwise drawn out of the honey-comb by man for his use, so the “SHEMEN” in the context of “earth oil” is deposited in the porous matrix of subterranean rock strata, the breasts and womb of TEHOM, from there to be sucked or pumped out by man. – This interpretation is strengthened by the presence of black chert – “HALAMISH” – interbedded with bituminous chalk and oil shale – “PITZLEI SHEMEN” – deposits throughout Israel. (See footnote 7 above.)

* * *

Thus, it would appear that, as well as giving us a geographical marker as to where the search for the treasure should begin, the Blessing of Asher, when read together with the Song of Praise, may also provide us with an indication concerning the nature of at least one of the “precious things” located under the north-western portion of the lands of Manasseh; an indication which points to the treasure’s being petroleum – “rock oil”, “stone oil”, or “earth oil”.

8 The similarities between and tendencies to confuse “rock oil” and the more common – at least for the ancients – olive oil is not new or limited to persons attempting to interpret the Song of Praise and Blessing of Asher, but go at least back to the Greeks and Romans. In his Petroleum in Antiquity, Forbes refers to similar confusion in the armies of Alexander the Great in connection with oil seepages in Turkmenistan near the river Oxus as reported by the Roman historian Plutarch (“The greasy oily liquor ‘Became perfectly clear, when the surface was taken off, and neither in taste or smell differed from real (Olive) oil nor was it inferior to it in smoothness and brightness, though there was no olive tree in that country.’”) and to confusion about the nature of the seeps near Agrigento in Sicily reported in the 1st Century BCE by the Greek physician Dioscorides (“’Bitumen is found in its liquid state near Acragantium in Sicily. It floats on the surface of springs and is used in lamps instead of (olive) oil. Those who call it Sicilian oil are mistaken for it is an established fact that it is a kind of liquid bitumen.’”), with Pliny and Aristotle making similar observations. Forbes, Petroleum in Antiquity, at pp. 28 and 30. – In this connection, in his Early Petroleum History, at p. 85, Forbes relates that in 1690 a local chemist analyzed a clear, white and thick waxy petroleum found in a well near Viterbo, Italy “and found it very much like olive oil, as it did not have the usual sulpherous smell.”

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