Israel’s Biblical Oil Explorers
March 27, 2010 by admin · 3 Comments
THE SEARCH FOR OIL IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL
A BIBLICAL TREASURE HUNT
By Philip Mandelker
APPENDIX
SCRIPTURALLY INSPIRED / INFLUENCED PETROLEUM
EXPLORATION IN ISRAEL
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1. Company: Asher Oil Company
Founder: Wesley Hancock. California based. A family company was active in oil and gas exploration in the United States.
Scriptural Basis: Blessing of Asher in Deuteronomy and story of Elijah’s sacrifice in I Kings.
Period of Activity: Early-middle 1960s.
Area of Activity: North-east flank of Mt. Carmel overlooking the plain of the Kishon Stream.
Primary Activity: Drilling of two wells:
(i) Asher #1: 1963 – drilled to 2,391 meters (7,845 ft) to a target in the Middle Jurassic. Results: Dry.
(ii) Asher #2: 1965 – drilled to 1,314 meters (4,311 ft) to a target in the Middle Jurassic. Results: Dry
Related Non-Scripturally Inspired Drilling:
In 1975, Sonol, a major Israeli gasoline marketing company reentered the Asher #2 well and deepened it to 2,596 meters (8,517 ft) to a target in the Early Jurassic. In 1980, OEL, an Israeli-government exploration company drilled the Asher #3 near the first two Asher wells to 574 meters (1,883 ft) to a Cretaceous target. Both these wells were dry.
2. Company: Energy Exploration Inc.
Founder: Andy Sorelle. Texas based petroleum engineer and wildcatter.
Scriptural Basis: Blessing of Asher in Deuteronomy
Period of Activity: First half of 1980s.
Area of Activity: Coastal plain between Mt. Carmel and the Mediterranean Sea, specifically in the area of the town of Atlit.
Primary Activity: Drilling of one well in two stages:
(i) Atlit #1: 1981 – drilled to 5,273 meters (17,301 ft) to a target in the Early Jurassic. Results: Dry
(ii) Atlit #1 Deep: 1982-1983 – deepened the Atlit #1 to 6,531 meters (21,428 ft) to target in Late Triassic. Results: asphalt and then light oil shows in cuttings before well was lost for technical reasons.
3. Company: Moriah Exploration
Founder: Gilman Hill. Colorado based geoscientist active in oil and gas exploration and developer of exploration technology.
Scriptural Basis: Story of Elijah’s sacrifice in I Kings and the Blessing of Asher in Deuteronomy.
Period of Activity: Early and mid-1980s.
Area of Activity: Mt. Carmel near the traditional site of the Elijah sacrifice.
Primary Activity: Drilling of two wells in 1980 and 1986:
(i) Elijah #1: 1980 – drilled to 2,682 meters (8,800 ft) to a target in the Middle Jurassic. Results: Dry.
(ii) Elijah #2: 1986 – drilled to 651 meters (2,136 ft) to a target in the Cenomanian. Results: Dry.
4. Company: Ness Energy
Founder: Harold “Hayseed” Stephens. A Texas oil and gas explorationist and operator.
Scriptural Basis: Genesis stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and a long series of scriptural references in various books of the Old Testament.
Period of Activity: 1980s and late 1990s-2001.
Area of Activity: Area surrounding the southwest quadrant of the Dead Sea and adjacent areas.
Primary Activity: Participation in drilling of one well in 1985; acquisition of certain exploration licenses in the late 1990s. The well, the Har Sedom #1 was targeted to be drilled to about 3,500 meters about 11,500 ft), but was lost for technical reasons at 1,818 meters (5,965 ft) in the Pliocene. The exploration licenses were lost following the failure of Ness to meet its obligations under the licenses to commence the drilling of wells on the license areas.
Related Non-Scripturally Inspired Drilling Activity
The Har Sedom #1 project and well were developed and operated by an Israeli commercial oil exploration company, Seismica. Ness Energy held a minority working interest (about 15%) in the well.
5. Company: Hoshana Oil Company
Founder: Bernard Coffindaffer. West Virginia based evangelical minister and missionary.
Scriptural Basis: Blessings of Asher, Zebulon and Issachar in Deuteronomy
Period of Activity: Early 1990s
Area of Activity: Southern flank of Mt. Carmel and the Valley of Jezreel just east of the South-eastern flank of Mt. Carmel.
Primary Activity: Acquisition of an exploration license and reprocessing and analysis of seismic data. License lapsed with no progress made towards drilling of well.
6. Company: Camberly Exploration
Founder: Lyle Harron. Canadian oil and gas explorationist.
Scriptural Basis: Blessings of Asher in Deuteronomy
Period of Activity: Early-middle 1990s.
Area of Activity: Coastal plain between Mt. Carmel and the Mediterranean Sea.
Primary Activity: Drilling of one well:
(i) Atlit #2: 1996 – drilled to 1,633 meters (5,388 ft) to a target in the Early Cretaceous. Results: Dry.
7. Company: Givot Olam Oil Exploration
Founder: Tovia Luskin. Russian born and educated geophysicist, active in oil and gas exploration in Canada and Australia, before moving to Israel.
Scriptural Basis: The Blessings of Joseph in Genesis and Deuteronomy
Period of Activity: 1990s to date
Area of Activity: Eastern portion of Sharon Plain between Netanya and Modiin
Primary Activity: Drilling of three wells commencing in 1994:
(i) Meged #2: 1994 – drilled to 5,200 meters (17,061 ft) to a target in the Triassic. Results: 400 API Silurian aged oil recovered from the Middle Triassic.
(ii) Meged #3: 2000 – drilled to 4,742 meters (15,683 ft) to a target in the Triassic. Results: Oil and gas shows in the Middle Triassic, but reservoir of very poor quality (very low porosity and permeability.)
(iii) Meged #4: 2002/3 – drilled to 4,919 meters (16,139 ft) to a target in the Triassic. Results: 360 API Silurian aged oil recovered from the Middle Triassic. Attempts in 2005 to drill a horizontal bore-hole in the well in an attempt to recover the oil which is located in tight reservoir rock failed apparently for technical reasons, with the well abandoned following loss of equipment in the horizontal bore.
Plans underway to drill another Meged well and attempt to develop the Meged field discovery, which was recognized by the Israel Petroleum Commissioner in 2004.
8. Company: Zion Oil & Gas, Inc.
Founder: John Brown. Michigan and Texas based businessman with roots in the machine-tool industry and active in building contracting sectors.
Scriptural Basis: The Blessings of Joseph in Genesis and Deuteronomy.
Period of Activity: 1990s to date.
Area of Activity: Manasseh hills and Sharon plain from the southern flanks of Mt. Carmel to Netanya.
Primary Activity: Drilling of a well in 2005:
(i) Ma’anit #1: (Re-entry) 2005 – deepening of previously abandoned Ma’anit #1 from 2,335 meters (7,661 ft) to 4,719 meters (15,483 ft) to targets in the Middle and Early Triassic. Results: The company announced that during drilling and completion operations, the well had numerous significant oil and gas shows in a 2,100-foot interval.
Analysis of the results of the well is continuing and future activity, including designing comprehensive completion procedure and drilling of an appraisal well being considered.
Related Non-Scripturally Inspired Drilling Activity:
The Ma’anit #1 was originally drilled to 2,335 meters (7,661 ft) in 1995 by an Israeli commercial oil exploration company, Sdot Neft. Though originally targeted to 4,500 meters (14,765 ft), it was abandoned as a dry hole after Sdot Neft ran out of money
(for a PDF Download of Philip Mandelker’s entire study go to: http://www.oilinisrael.net/resources/biblical-treasure-hunt-free-pdf)
Givot Olam Struggles with Oil Discovery
March 9, 2010 by admin · 2 Comments
Givot Olam's Meged #4
In 2004 Givot Olam announced an oil discovery in their Meged #4 well, the newly discovered ‘Meged oil field’ was estimated to contain 980 million barrels of crude; about 200 million barrels of that actually recoverable. Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructures looked t the data, confirmed the discovery and issued a production license to the company … that was six years ago. Givot Olam hasn’t actually produced any appreciable amount of the oil they discovered in 2004 and the Meged #4 was shut down due to ‘engineering problems’ after attempting a horizontal drilling process in 2005.
Last year Givot Olam tried to resurrect hopes of producing oil by drilling the Meged #5, south of it’s previous wells. The Meged #5, still under 13,000 feet deep (according to Givot’s drilling agreement with Lapidoth, the original planned depth was over 16,000 feet) and the drilling project is $4.9 million over budget; add to that an additional $6 – 7.5 million for production testing. Givot Olam only has $3.7 million in the bank, so they’ll need to raise more capital before anyone knows if the Meged #5 will be a commercial well.
Givot representatives stated last week (see below) that the “quantities of gas measured in the mud of the Meged 5 well is ten times the amount in all other wells in the Meged field.” But since no actual quantity was disclosed, there’s no way of telling whether the well is capable of producing commercial gas until testing is complete.
An oil ‘discovery’ of 980,000 million barrels in 2004 (the Givot Olam website states 2,000 million [2 billion] barrels) and still no oil?
First of all, I believe Givot Olam discovered oil 13,000 feet below the surface in 2004. Secondly, while the oil is still 13,000 feet down, I don’t believe there’s any ironclad way of determining exactly how much was discovered or, more importantly, how much of the oil in the ground is producible to the surface. And (this is an important part of the oil business) you can only send oil to the refinery that’s that’s actually on the surface.
What’s the moral of this story?
Discovering oil and producing oil are two separate and distinct events. Sometimes they happen back to back … but sometimes they don’t. And how much time and capital an oil company thinks exploration and completion will cost, reality may have a higher figure in mind. In a recent interview, Zion Oil & Gas Exploration Manager Stephen Pierce stated that the odds of finding oil in the exploration process are “one in nine.” That means, on average, nine wells are drilled for every one that produces. But not one of the oil explorers I’ve interviewed or researched in the history of Israel’s hunt for oil expected to drill nine holes before discovering oil. Every well was expected to be the well. That, unfortunately, isn’t the way it is.
Here’s the good news.
Israel possesses a massive amount of natural gas – more than they’ll need into the foreseeable future. Israel’s natural gas was discovered just last year. And Israel possesses oil – that’s been proven by exploration and, I believe, it will be confirmed by discoveries outside the Meged field in the near future. The gap between ‘discovery’ and ‘production’ may be time consuming and expensive (as it has been in Givot Olam’s case), but once fields begin producing they generally continue. Israel will be energy independent; she will produce and consume domestic oil and gas, all Givot Olam and the other oil exploration companies in Israel need to do is stay in business. Givot Olam will raise the capital to finish the Meged #5. Will the well produce oil or gas? I don’t know, but I do know they’re a lot closer to the finish line than when they started.
Below is the February 28 Globes article on Givot Olam:
“The quantities of gas measured in the mud of the Meged 5 well is ten times the amount in all other wells in the Meged field,” Givot Olam Oil Exploration LP (TASE:GIVO.L) announced today in a presentation ahead of Tuesday’s partners meeting. At the meeting, the general partner will try to get the investors’ approval to issue NIS 25 million worth of partnership units and options.
Givot did not disclose the actual quantity of gas measured in the well, or its significance for the quantity of oil at the site, which will only be known when the production tests are completed.
Givot’s general partner added that the drilling cost of the Meged 5 well is $12.6 million, more than the $7.7 million originally planned. The general partner attributed the higher cost to “two serious breakdowns during the drilling and adjustments to the drilling plan”.
The presentation added that the Meged 5 has reached the Upper Mohila strata at a depth of 3,879 meters, and that the well is due to reach a depth of 3,950 meters. The partnership estimates the cost of the production tests at $6 – 7.5 million and they will last for two more months. The partnership has just $3.7 million in cash left, hence the need to raise more capital.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on February 28, 2010
