Zion Oil Stock Continues Upward Trend

Zion Oil & Gas Stock (ZN, NASDAQ) continues to rise since it’s six month low of $4.31 back in January. On March 2nd of this year Zion stock shot to $5.81 after broadcast media interviews and print news articles with Founder John Brown and CEO Richard Rinberg during the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville.

Zion stock settled down under $5.00 during much of March and then began to climb in April, topping at $5.40 after April 14 news of Israel awarding Zion Oil & Gas the Jordan Valley exploration license. Zion stock on the last day of trading since this report finished at $5.37.

Trading analyst, SmarTrend, announced Thursday that their  ’uptrend’ call has been “vindicated” by Zion’s recent stock performance.

So what does this mean to those of us who aren’t Wall Street day traders or stock analysts? I’m not sure – I’m not one of those guys. I own Zion Oil stock because I believe in what they’re doing and I believe in the nation of Israel. Zion’s vision is to find oil in Israel and provide for the nation’s domestic energy needs through that(those) discovery(ies).

What about the daily ups and downs of Zion’s stock? At this point, who cares? I figure that an oil company’s stock value isn’t really all that important until they’ve either discovered oil and/or gas, or they give up looking. Zion hasn’t made a discovery (yet) and they sure as heck haven’t shown any signs of giving up. Until one or the other happens, I’m all in.

*Reminder – the editor of www.OilinIsrael.net is not an investment consultant or a stockbroker (not even close). For investment advice see your financial counselor, or better yet – if you’re a believer in Israel’s G-d, seek His advice.

Zion Oil Appoints Ilan Sheena as CFO

Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ GM: ZN) announced on April 7 that Mr. Ilan Sheena CPA (Israel) has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of the Company, effective March 31, 2011. Mr. Sheena replaces Kent Siegel, who has resigned from the Company by mutual and amicable agreement.

Mr. Sheena, age 52, has been Vice President (Finance) of the Company’s Israeli Branch since November 2009 and Managing Director of the Israeli Branch since August 2010. Mr. Sheena is an accounting professional with broad local and international experience. He has a degree in Accounting and Economics from Tel Aviv University and is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Israel.

*Editors Note: I have visited Zion’s Israel offices several times in the last few years and met Ilan when he first came aboard with Zion and have spoken with him on every subsequent visit. In my opinion, Zion is fortunate to have such a capable and positive person in the CFO position.

Steve Spillman

Will Gas Ignite a Lebanon-Israel War?

Time.com posted an article this week that offshore territorial disputes between Lebanon and Israel could ignite the ‘Next Big Lebanon-Israel Flare-Up’.

Time reports:

For most countries, the existence of a massive fossil-fuel deposit within its sovereign territory would be gratefully welcomed as an economic windfall. But the delight in Israel at the recent giant gas discovery off its northern coastline is tempered by the knowledge that it could provide the spark to ignite the next war between the Jewish state and its mortal foe to the north, Lebanon’s militant Shi’ite Hizballah.

The stakes are enormous. Both Lebanon and Israel currently have little or no oil or gas deposits, and are dependent on neighboring countries for importing fuel and power. Israel presently relies on Egypt for most of its gas, but the durability of that arrangement has been cast into doubt following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. The Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Israel and Jordan was blown up in January and only began operating again only a couple of weeks ago.

Key to the tensions over the potential gas bonanza is that the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon has never been delineated because the two states are still technically at war.

Click here for the entire Time.com article.

Zion Oil Releases New Exploration Map

Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. released an updated map of it’s current and applied for exploration area. Updates include splitting Zion’s former ‘Issachar-Zebulun’ permit area into two new (applied for) areas – the ‘Zebulun Permit’ and the ‘Jordan Valley’ license. Surprisingly, Zion has also applied for an exploration license near the Dead Sea in the same area where Ginko/Lapidoth discovered oil in 2006.

According to Israel’s Petroleum Law, an exploration permit cannot exceed 18 months and allows the permit holder to conduct preliminary investigations, but not drill in the permit area. An exploration license is granted for three years and can be extended another four years. Licensees are required to drill test wells in the license area. An exploration license may not exceed 400,000 dunams (approximately 100,000 acres) in area.