Is Zion Oil on the Rocks?

I received a comment from a reader (Bill) yesterday; he was worried, as a lot of folks are, about the recent fall Zion’s stock price. Here’s the comment:

“The price today at $1.50. What’s the process at this end. Does the company fall off the board if it hits below a dollar say? Is there limits? Is there continued values to these stocks if the price falls to say .50 cents or less than a dollar, or less than a quarter? I’m not a stock guy, so if you have this type of information, please post it.
Thanks!”

I’m not a genie or a guru and, like Bill, I’m “not a stock guy.” I do have my own opinion of the situation, but before I share it, let me tell you a story.

Not quite 2,000 years ago there was a guy – his parents named him ‘Saul’, but he went by ‘Paul’. After a dramatic meet up with G-d on the road to Damascus, Saul/Paul literally ‘saw the light’ and became the world’s most famous Jewish missionary. This did not please the Jews at the time, at least those who held the community’s political and religious power. They were always accusing him of ‘crimes against G-d and against Rome’ (whatever that meant) and as a result, Paul spent a lot of time in court or in jail. Things began to get dicey; there were death threats and plots, and there was a pretty good chance that if Paul let the locals have their way he would meet an ‘accidental’ death on the way to court. Paul played his trump card – even though he was a Jew, he was also a Roman citizen, and as such he had a right to be tried for his ‘crimes’ in Rome, far away from the locals who had promised that Paul would be dead before he made his court date.

The Roman authorities put Paul on a boat to Rome (really it was just a connector boat, but it did get him to the real boat to Rome). While he was sailing on the real boat to Rome a storm came up – a big storm. The crew did all they could but everyone on the ship knew this storm would be the end of them. Everyone but Paul. In the night an angel visited Paul and said (paraphrased), “Look, you’ve got to tell Caesar your story, you’re definitely going to Rome. Don’t worry about your life or the lives of those on the boat, not one person will be injured or die from this storm … but, the ship will run aground on some island.” Paul would fulfill his mission of standing before Caesar; the storm wasn’t a catastrophe, just a detour.

Nice story, but what does it have to do with Zion Oil?

Zion Oil isn’t the only stock in the cellar right now, have you looked at the Dow averages? We won’t even talk about European economies. It ain’t pretty. How about Israel and all this talk at the UN about Palestinian Statehood? That can’t be good. And there sure is a lot of sabre rattling by Israel’s neighbors to the north about offshore drilling. Things are tense, they don’t look good, there’s a storm a-brewing!

The sailors on Paul’s boat threw everything overboard and tried to escape in the lifeboat. Good thing they didn’t, they would have been killed.

When you’re in the middle of a storm the natural thing to do is panic, toss stuff overboard and go for the lifeboats. That’s the natural thing … sometimes the natural thing is the wrong thing. It’s tough to keep the goal in mind when waves are coming into the boat, but storms come, and then they go, and the goal remains.

John Brown was given a vision and a mission thirty years ago; before there ever was a Zion Oil & Gas, before there were any stock prices to worry about, before anyone knew there actually was oil and gas in Israel. In thirty years there’s been a lot of foul weather and a lot of fair weather, but the goal hasn’t changed. I don’t know if Paul’s angel ever visited John Brown in the night, but I do know that there’s oil and gas in Israel and that Zion is committed to finding their share of it. It’s not easy to ignore the storm and keep your focus on the goal. The easy thing to do is cut and run for the lifeboats … it’s just not the right thing to do.

So Bill, I’m not a ‘stock guy’. I’m just a guy on the boat; I know that storms don’t last forever and, eventually, we’ll get to where we’re going. Until then, I’ll look for daylight.

Zion Oil Opens $31+ Million Rights Offering

On Thursday, June 23 Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZN) filed a prospectus with the SEC for a $31.25 million rights offering to current stockholders. The rights offering consists of 6,250,000 non-transferable subscription rights @ $5 per Unit. Each subscription right Unit includes (1) share of Zion common stock and (2) warrants to buy additional shares of common stock @ $3.50 per share. Zion stockholders will receive (1) subscription right Unit for every (4) shares of Zion common stock they own as of June 15.

What this offering means is that if a Zion stockholder owned 1,000 shares, for example, of common stock on June 15, Zion will send, at no charge, 250 ‘subscription rights Units’. Each Unit, if exercised @ $5, entitles the stockholder to (1) share of Zion  common stock and (2) warrants to buy additional shares @ $3.50 within one year of the offering’s close. Exercising the Unit offering including the Warrants would cost the stockholder a total of $12 per (3) shares of Zion common stock. As of this writing Zion common stock is trading on NASDAQ (ZN) @ $5.56 – buying (3) shares of Zion common stock at the current trading price would cost $16.68.

This offering is currently scheduled to close on July 25, 2011. Even though the offering limits stockholders to (1) subscription right per (4) shares of common stock owned, stockholder may oversubscribe to purchase additional that remain unsubscribed at the close of the offering, subject to availability and allocation.

If fully subscribed, Zion will raise $31,250,000 from the sale of Units, and if the warrants are fully exercised within a year of the offering’s close, an additional $43,750,000. According to the Prospectus Zion Oil & Gas will use proceeds from the offering “for (i) furthering our oil and gas exploration program by carrying out geological and geophysical studies on our exploration areas, (ii) complete logging, interpretation and any production testing that may be deemed needed with respect to the Ma’anit-Joseph #3 well (iii) drilling a well on our Jordan Valley License and (iv) general corporate purposes.

Zion’s Prospectus describes the company’s current and applied for exploration territory in Israel:

“We currently hold two petroleum exploration licenses, which we have named the Joseph License and the Jordan Valley License, covering approximately 139,000 acres of land onshore Northern Israel.  A third petroleum exploration license, the Asher-Menashe License covering approximately 79,000 acres of land adjacent to the Joseph License, expired on June 9, 2011, its scheduled expiry date. We have continuously held the Asher-Menashe since June 2007 and we have drilled one exploratory well in this license area. Prior to the expiry of the Asher-Menashe License, we submitted to Israeli Petroleum Commissioner an application to extend the license. We do not believe that the Israeli Petroleum Commissioner will deny our application for the extension while we have a current well on the site; however, no assurance can be provided that the requested extension will be granted.

“In February 2011, we submitted to the Commissioner applications for two exploration licenses and an application for a preliminary exploration permit. One of the license applications and the application for the preliminary exploration permit cover substantially all of the area covered by our previous Issachar-Zebulun Permit, which expired on February 23, 2011. We named one license application (with respect to part of the previous Issachar-Zebulun Permit) the Jordan Valley License Application and the preliminary exploration permit (applied for with respect to substantially the balance of such area) the Zebulun Permit Application. We named the other license application the Dead Sea License Application as it relates to areas within the vicinity of the Dead Sea.”

Mike Huckabee Receives “Breaking the Treasure Code”

Fox News personality, former Presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee was presented with a copy of Steve Spillman’s  ”Breaking the Treasure Code: The Hunt for Israel’s Oil”. Oil in Israel and Zion Oil & Gas fan Bob Bradshaw from The Woodlands, Texas. Bob Was with Mr Huckabee at a recent Houston fund raising dinner.

Zion Oil & Gas Applies for Asher-Joseph Permit

DALLAS and CAESAREA, Israel, June 14, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZN) announced today that on June 13, 2011, the Company submitted an application to the Israeli Petroleum Commissioner’s Office, requesting the grant of a new petroleum exploration permit area adjacent to Zion’s Joseph License area. The new permit application has been named by Zion, the “Asher-Joseph Permit Application”.

The Asher-Joseph Permit Application area covers approximately 80,000 acres of land and is to the west and south of Zion’s Joseph License area. It is onshore Israel and traverses a section of land, adjacent to the coastline, between Haifa and Tel Aviv. The grant of a permit would allow us to conduct, on an exclusive basis through a specified period, preliminary investigations to ascertain the prospects for discovering petroleum in the area covered by the permit.  Unlike a license area, where test drilling may take place, no test drilling is allowed on a permit area.

Zion’s Chief Executive Officer, Richard Rinberg, said today, “We have three applications for new exploration areas pending before the Israeli Petroleum Commissioner’s Office: the Asher-Joseph Permit, the Zebulun Permit and the Dead Sea License.

“We continue to implement our exploration and drilling program and build on our progress to date. If granted the new exploration areas, we intend to acquire additional seismic and other geological and geophysical data, as we work towards refining potential drilling prospects.

“Currently, drilling operations at our Ma’anit-Joseph #3 well continue. We have reached our target depth of approximately 19,357 feet (5,900 meters), in the Permian geologic layer in Northern Israel, and are now preparing for open-hole wireline logging operations, planned to commence this week. Depending on the outcome of our wireline logging and subsequent interpretation, we may determine to drill this well deeper.”

Zion’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “ZN“.

Zion Oil & Gas, a Delaware corporation, explores for oil and gas in Israel in areas located onshore between Haifa and Tel Aviv. It currently holds two petroleum exploration licenses, the Joseph License (on approximately 83,000 acres), between Netanya, in the south, and Haifa, in the north and the Jordan Valley License (on approximately 56,000 acres), just south of the Sea of Galilee. The Asher-Menashe License (on approximately 79,000 acres), which Zion has held continuously since June 2007, expired on June 9, 2011 (its scheduled expiration date); however, prior to that date, Zion submitted an extension application to Israel’s Petroleum Commissioner.

Letter from Israel

My Friend Steve Grable is on his third week touring the Land of Israel. He visited with the folks at Zion Oil & Gas and toured the Zion offices in Caesarea and the well site. I thought I’d share yesterday’s letter with you – it’s a good one.

Third Week’s Summary of being in the Land of Israel

Greetings Dear Saints,

Monday we departed for our journey north along highway 4 which extends from Tel Aviv up the coast with occasional glimpses of the Mediterranean.

Our game plan was to visit with Jody and Alyosha (which some of you know) in  Zichron Ya’akov which is close to Caesarea. Although they had made Aliyah a few years ago, they physically moved to the Land last December.

We were hoping to arrive at their place by 10AM however the Lord had different plans for us. Our GPS whom we affectionately refer to as Shalom (male voice) seems to move to the beat of a different drummer and wanted to take us in a different direction. We actually traveled beyond our intended turn off and being of the male persuasion, only with great reluctance did I stop to get directions. Ladies please do not be concerned; this is simply a male gene deficiency!

We drove in to a small town and spoke with two helpful Jewish gentlemen. Then like so many others have asked us “the two questions”, “where are you from and why are you here?’. It is not that they do not want us here; but rather they do not understand why Christians who live in America with so few security issues would actually pay to come and visit a Land that is going through such turmoil. Every time we are asked these two questions, we respond with the same heart, “We are here because we love the Jewish people and we love Israel. Each time, we see amazement in their faces. We then go on to let know that many Christians are praying for their safety and their prosperity. Yet there is more, we continually pray that the scales will fall from the Jewish eyes and each will have a personal encounter with Messiah Yeshua, Jesus.

After turning around and beginning our backtrack, it was required of us to go through an Israeli check point. We must remember that an Arab had just killed one man in Tel Aviv and injured 19 others when he drove his large truck through Jewish civilians who were simply doing their shopping. Such are the daily tragedies the Jewish people must endure all the while the world refuses to see this injustice.

We were asked by a very nice Jewish lady named Mahog to exit our car, open the hood, all doors and the trunk and remove all bags in which we complied. They were very thorough when doing their search and who can blame them? Just one distraught terrorist can bring such destruction. We were then instructed to empty pockets, and walk through metal detectors while our luggage was being examined.  At all times we were shown kindness and courtesy however they have a very important job and were quite serious in addressing the task at hand. I believe the Lord allowed us to see firsthand not only the process but also the tremendous waste of talented people in dealing with terrorism. Important to say that the Arab peoples are not singled out exclusively but Jewish people as well go through the same procedure. Suffice it to say, terrorism adversely affects the lives of everyone in the Land to a greater degree than any other country on the face of the earth.

After leaving the inspection, we gave a quick call to Jody and Alyosha knowing they had commitments in Jerusalem and had to leave. So after speaking with them it was decided to meet the following day. What was originally a disappointment at the time became a blessing in disguise. We then turned aside and investigated the beautiful town of Netanya.

Netanya translates to “gift of God”. We drove and the Holy Spirit who has continuously led us had not departed. We parked the car wanting to walk down to the Mediterranean shore. We could not have imagined the beauty we were about to partake. There is a cobblestone walkway that follows along the shore for some distance and we had managed to find this winding walkway within the waters edge.

We made our way towards a pavilion only to find a restaurant atop a one-hundred foot high cleft overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We were seated right on the overhanging portion of the dining room and had a delightful lunch. Just a mental note for those of you who think you may visit the Land. When you see different types of “toast” being offered on the menu, do not snub your nose. The toast they are referring is more like pitta bread which has been grilled and toasted, and then assaulted with an array of tasty veggies, humus, chicken, tuna or salmon, onions and other unknown goodies. I tell you a mystery, toast never tasted so good!

After lunch, we mounted our trusty stead ‘(Kia Rio) and headed for Haifa, the port city. This will be the place Zion Oil and Gas will move their oil to awaiting tankers for export to satisfy the thirsty nations.

I would like to take a moment to please advise any who read this report. Please consider purchasing Zion Oil shares represented as ZN or the Warrants as the symbol ZNWAZ. Either of these can be purchased through your Scottrade or personal broker on the NASDAQ.

From seeking the Lord in this with so many other Believers, I have absolute faith that God is about to present a “game changer” when Israel strikes oil. There will be a geopolitical shift that will shake the US, Europe and the Middle East. Israel will become independent and will begin to refuse the constant demands of the nations.  I will share more later on Zion Oil, but to those of you who love Israel and wish to both bless Israel and be blessed, become a part of Zion Oil and Gas as quickly as possible, believe this “find” will happen relatively soon.

After our visit to Haifa, we then went back south to the place Elijah the prophet was awaiting us, Mt Carmel. Remember the story? Mt Carmel is the spiritual equivalent of the OK Corral. There was a showdown of the righteous and the unrighteous. The prophet of God, Elijah and the false prophets of Ba’al and Ashe’rah. Both were expecting to display which god is God!  What an incredibly awesome place, sheer clefts that arose before us with winding roads reaching for the top of the mountain.

It was time for our excursion to end for the day and time to find a hotel in Caesarea.

Must share, Caesarea is spelled three ways. When spelled with a C, this is for us Gentiles. When it is spelled with a Q it is Jewish, when spelled with a K then is Arabic. If you are driving and using a GPS, you will discover that the map or someone’s address may be spelled one way and there may be a discrepancy of a letter or two. Yet, even if you are temporarily lost, every street and road is an adventure in the Land of God.

It was our intention to stay the night in Caesarea in order to be close to the Zion Oil offices for the next morning’s appointment. We found a beautiful hotel, the Caesarea Dan, an older but extremely well kept and nearly of luxurious status. Though the day had taken some twists and turns, all things worked for the good!

That evening in the Caesarea Dan hotel, John, Marie and I were in the restaurant and I observed a man two tables away and just knew he was associated with Zion Oil. So I summoned up the courage and walked over to his table and introduced myself and asked if he was involved with Zion to which he replied, “Yes, I am Bill Ottaviani.

Bill is the president and chief operating officer. During our conversation, mentioned we were scheduled to meet Stephen Pierce the next morning for a tour of the offices and then out to the well site. Bill was aware of our visit and all was prepared.

Prior to leaving on our Israeli expedition, I had exchanged emails with Ora the office manager of Zion Oil hdqts in Caesarea, she then passed to Stephen Pierce, Zion’s Oil exploration manager. Steve was terrific. He sat me in the seat next to him in front of his PC and began to bring up several plots showing geographical data along with proposed new licenses that Zion Oil would be seeking. We really got excited! We were given a tour of the offices and meet two gentlemen from the Zion Oil team. Aaron Kahn who is a geologist and whose family lives in Florida and Victor Carrillo who is the executive Vice President and resides in Texas. I cannot say enough good things about all of these men. Many times when you find someone who has excelled in their field, it has been my experience that egos tend to get in the way. Not these men, they are simple down to earth goal oriented and a group who have the ability to work well together. What is so beautiful about Zion Oil, there are Jews, Christians and Muslims all working in unity toward a common goal. I am reminded of story of the tower of Babel. There was a very good reason why the Lord changed their languages.

God made a very profound statement. He said when men are in unity, they can accomplish anything. The reason… because we are made in His image!

The secondary objective of our trip was to visit and pray for the successful discovery of hydrocarbons in the Land of Israel. We are believing that Zion Oil is about to bring forth the treasures buried within the sand. Over the years I have done my best to promote Zion Oil to all believers for two reasons. The first was to bless Israel and the other was to bring favor and blessing back to the believers.

Our visit with Zion Oil staff and the actual drill site was in every way a blessing to us and the words the Holy Spirit had us to speak to several of the staff was also an encouragement to them. We were all given hard hats, yes even Miss Marie, (wait till you see the photos) and we were shown every courtesy and our every question was answered.

Finally, John, Marie and I asked if we could pray for the Zion Oil drill site and of course were given the permission. The three of us along with a sweet brother in the Lord, Victor the Exec President and Aaron the geologist who had a wonderful spirit joined us in taking in our hands the “gates” of the Zion Oil drill site and prayed. Our parting statement to them was that many Christians were praying and holding Zion Oil up before the Lord. Our visit had concluded but a transference of encouragement had taken place with these men from Zion that bonded all of us together to a common goal.

After leaving the Zion Oil well site, we drove to Jody and Alyoshas’ place and fellowshipped with them before beginning our assent up to the Golan Heights. However we were not able to cover much of the Golan as it was getting late. We then turned south to Tiberius. Tiberius is that city mid-way up on the western side of the Kinneret that is to say, the Sea of Galilee. It is here the Lord Jesus calmed the waters and Simon Peter walked on the water. The Spirit of the Lord has been calming the raging winds and seas in each of our lives and many years we are not even aware of His steadfast protection over us.

John, Marie and I stayed in the Leonardo hotel, an older hotel however from our windows we could see the Sea of Galilee. It was our hope to take a sail on the Kinneret however the Golan was still calling.

So we again began our assault the Golan…….however we stopped at the Mount of Beatitudes. There were several tour busses there. We were walking back to the car and we struck up a conversation with Sherry and when she mentioned the Joshua Fund, I said do you mean Joel Rosenberg? Sherry replied with a yes and there he is there, just a few feet away. John, Marie and I were privileged to speak with Joel for about five minutes as we walked back to the parking lot. Of course I had to tell him I had read nearly all his books!

We continued our journey nearly as far north to within just a few miles from the Syrian border. Our hearts broke for seeing the young IDF soldiers standing guard in small lookouts along the way. We observed several command bases and about a dozen tanks and various heavily armored off road combat vehicles.

All the while John was at many times singing in the Spirit and many occasions we would simply break out and began praying one after another, each giving glory to the Lord for all His goodness and asking for mercy and revelation to fall upon

His people.

We pulled on to a small rest area with a scenic view where a bus was parked. There were about 20 young men and women all IDF soldiers and they were eating lunch which consisted of fresh fruit. I asked if anyone spoke English, nearly all respond with a yes. I then remarked, Ah hah, so all of you speak English and immediately we were laughing and had a brief conversation.

Again, John, Marie and I kept speaking our message to them, you are loved and many Christians are praying for your protection and safety and blessing. Our heart is to see Israel prosper and be blessed. As I have said many times before, you see an immediate change in their countenance when hearing of God’s love.

Marie and I have remarked, that at every turn, every place you look, there is such beauty that certainly this is the Land of God. The Bible states that Jerusalem is the Lord’s footstool, since we know that God’s Word is true, then the valleys must be His footprints. You simply cannot turn your face in any direction without finding a breathtaking vista with each demanding to be placed on the cover of Nat Geo.

We wish to express our love and gratitude for all of you and our continued thanks for praying for us, we feel and see the reality of your prayer.

As I had stated before, our intention was not to rent a car and drive however we have now driven over 1,700 miles and we are about to begin out trek southward next Monday to visit with Melanie and Ronen. While in the area of the Negev, we will also take in Masada and the Dead Sea.

I will share a little secret with all of you. I had in my mind on more than one occasion, said in my heart, “I wish I had the time and energy to walk the Land”. The Lord’s ear is not deaf for He has granted my desire. He has such a  wonderful sense of humor. The Lord knows that I am no longer the young man who is able to walk the Land so He gave me a Kia Rio to make the journey a little quicker and considerably more enjoyable.

Such is the goodness of our God.

Our heart, our goal our command is to see the completion of the dream as expressed by the Spirit of the Lord.

John, Marie, and me

PS have taken 600 photos which will be available on the website after returning to the States.

Blessings to you and your house,

Steve Grable

http://jeremiah111.org/

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

Zion Oil Raises $18.25 Million

DALLAS and CAESAREA, Israel, Dec. 16, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZN) announced today that on December 15, 2010, it completed its previously announced rights offering. The preliminary outcome of the rights offering, as of the close of business on December 15, 2010, indicates that subscriptions for approximately 3.65 million units, for gross proceeds of approximately $18.25 million, have been received (including over-subscriptions). All shareholders that requested over-subscription shares will be awarded their full over-subscription request.

Zion’s Chief Executive Officer Richard Rinberg said today, “I am pleased to announce the successful conclusion of our rights offering. The proceeds from this offering provide us with the funds that we believe are necessary to allow us to proceed with our planned drilling subsidiary, provide us with financial and operating flexibility and enable us to further our exploration and drilling program significantly.

“We have successfully drilled approximately two-thirds of our Ma’anit-Joseph #3 well and are now drilling the final third.

“We remain excited about the possibility of recovering hydrocarbons on our license and permit areas, onshore Israel, especially due to the U.S. Geological Survey report, published in April 2010, containing their assessment that there may be 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin, as all of Zion’s exploration rights fall within the area of the Levant Basin.”

Under the completed rights offering, holders of record of Zion’s common stock were given non-transferable subscription rights to purchase eighteen (18) Units for every one hundred (100) shares of common stock owned as of the close of business on September 28, 2010. The purchase price of a Unit was $5. Each Unit consisted of one (1) share of Zion’s common stock and one (1) warrant to purchase an additional share of Zion’s common stock at an exercise price of $4.00.

Zion is currently drilling its Ma’anit-Joseph #3 well in Northern Israel and has currently reached a drilling depth of approximately 13,123 feet (4,000 meters). The Ma’anit-Joseph #3 well has targets in both the Triassic geological zone and the Permian geological zone. The primary target is Permian age lithology, expected at a depth of approximately 19,357 feet (5,900 meters).

For updates on the drilling activity please visit Zion’s website www.zionoil.com

Zion’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “ZN” and Zion’s $7 warrants trade under the symbol “ZNWAW”. From December 28, 2010 through their expiration date of December 31, 2012, Zion’s $4 warrants will trade on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “ZNWAZ.” Zion’s transfer agent is in the process of distributing the share and warrant certificates to those rights holders who participated in the rights offering, either directly or through their brokers.

Zion Oil & Gas, a Delaware corporation, explores for oil and gas in Israel in areas located on-shore between Haifa and Tel Aviv. It currently holds two petroleum exploration licenses, the Joseph and the Asher-Menashe Licenses, between Netanya, in the south, and Haifa, in the north, covering a total of approximately 162,000 acres and the Issachar-Zebulun Permit Area, adjacent to and to the east of Zion’s Asher-Menashe license area, covering approximately 165,000 acres. Zion’s total petroleum exploration rights area is approximately 327,000 acres.

Israel’s Future as an Energy Exporter

Will Israel become a major exporter of natural gas in the near future? Most likely. How about an oil exporter? Maybe. Is there any chance of Israel joining OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)? With Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Venezuela on the membership committee, probably not.

But the reality is that Israel has already made the largest natural gas discovery – ever – in the Mediterranean and the largest discovery worldwide in 2009. Of course those figures were based on the initial Tamar gas field reserve estimates of 5 trillion (that’s ‘trillion’) cubic feet. Since then the Tamar estimates have jumped to 8.7 trillion cubic feet. But wait, there’s more! The Leviathan field, discovered after Tamar, is estimated to hold an astonishing 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The piece of news offshore operator Noble Energy isn’t ready to make too public yet is that they believe that underneath the natural gas fields, there could be oil. That’s the story offshore.

Onshore, Givot Olam claims the field below their Meged #5 well may hold 1.5 billion barrels of oil (we’ll find out how real that estimate is next month). By the way, the Meged #5 has been pumping oil in the midst of the latest arguments over how big the field may or may not be. Zion Oil & Gas, just yesterday, spudded (began drilling) their Ma’anit-Joseph #3 well. This is Zion’s third attempt to discover commercial quantities of oil in the Ma’anit structure. The first two wells were frustratingly close; they actually extracted oil from the Ma’anit-Rehoboth #2 test well. Zion isn’t going into the Ma’anit-Joseph #3 blind; based on results from the first two wells and their best science, this well will be at the location and depth they need to be to hit commercial oil.

Bottom Line: Israel is not waiting for a major hydrocarbon discovery – it’s already happened – the largest natural gas discovery worldwide in 2009 (of course that was when they believed they only had 5 trillion cubic feet in the Tamar field and before the Leviathan discovery). The Tamar field is 90 kilometers (56 miles) offshore and Leviathan is 130 kilometers (81 miles) out to sea. Producing the offshore gas (bringing to market by building pipelines to onshore facilities)  will take a few years (up to five). But it will happen. It’s a pretty good bet that all of Israel’s domestic natural gas needs (that includes electricity) will be fully supplied and that more than a few European and the Japanese households (at least) will be heating their morning tea with Israeli natural gas in the next decade. Up until 2009 nobody imagined that Israel could supply her own needs, let alone become a world exporter of natural gas. In 2019 it will be a major Israeli export.

Is oil far behind? I don’t think so. If oil and gas is discovered onshore in the near future, it will most likely beat the offshore gas to market. If a lot of oil is discovered – beyond Israel’s domestic needs – oil is much easier (and quicker) to export than natural gas.

Little old Israel, a major energy exporter – imagine that! Of  course Israel has accomplished a lot of things in the last sixty-plus years the world never imagined. That may be because the world doesn’t know it’s Bible as well as it should. About 2,700 years ago Israel (the northern kingdom) was decimated by her enemies (ancestors of some of the same enemies Israel has today) and many in Israel were taken as captives back to conquering Assyria.  Later the Babylonians conquered Assyria, but Israel remained captives in exile, away from their home land. In this dark time an Israeli living in exile, his name was Yechezk’el,  saw a vision of his people’s future. He saw dry bones coming together to form a nation of people, he saw a wasteland spring to life and become a garden. Yechezk’el’s (we westerners use the name Ezekiel) vision of dry bones became reality on May 14, 1948 when Israel, after 1,900 years of exile, became a nation. In 1948, the Land of Israel wasn’t too different from the ‘wasteland’ Ezekiel saw in his vision. Today the ‘wasteland’ has become a garden.  In Ezekiel’s vision G-d made a promise to the Land of Israel: “I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more before.” (Ezekiel 36:11)

A nation of people from dry bones … wasteland springing into gardens … a nation in exile for 1,900 years returning to its homeland and prospering today more than in any time in history … imagine that!

1.5 Billion Barrel Oil Discovery in Israel?

News reports out Israel of a 1.5 billion barrel oil discovery lit up websites and news postings yesterday. Israeli oil exploration company Givot Olam announced to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) on Tuesday that, “Production test drilling at Givot Olam’s Meged 5 site near Rosh Ha’ayin indicated it holds 1.525 billion barrels’ worth of oil.” And boy did it start a stir!

Givot Olam stock shot up 69% at one point, before finally settling out at a 19.7% gain … meanwhile trading was suspended and the Israel Securities Authority demanded clarifications of the report from Givot Olam – who didn’t have anything to add.  They said a full report would be available in September.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “This is not the first time Givot has issued partial and less than definitive information.” If you visit the Givot Olam website (http://www.givot.co.il/english/index.php) today you’ll read about the 2 billion barrels they “discovered” (but never produced) in 2004.  The truth behind this week’s “discovery” is that their tests don’t show how much oil they can produce or how much the discovery may be worth financially. What they do know is that even if there is 1.5 billion barrels down there, only a small percentage of it is recoverable; estimates range from 10% to 25%.

Givot Olam has been pumping oil mixed with gas and water from the Meged 5 test well for about a week and a half, averaging about 380 barrels per day. Israel consumes 235,000 barrels of oil per day. At the rate the Meged 5 is pumping now the well would supply less than two tenths of one percent of Israel’s daily consumption. If just 10% of Givot Olam’s “discovery” was recoverable (150 million barrels), the Meged 5 would have to maintain its current pace for over a thousand years to harvest the field. Israel burns through 150 million barrels in less than two years.

Haaretz reports: A geophysicist in the field, however, called the most recent announcement “speculative” and said the 1.525 billion figure appeared “exaggerated.”

“The bottom line is that I want to see the well’s capacity of barrels per day over time,” he said. “How much the drilling site can produce – that’s what will answer questions regarding its economic viability. Regarding the reserves, I don’t think they can be assessed at the moment. It’s a very rough estimate and everything gets into the range of probabilities.”

That’s what the geophysicists in Israel (the guys who know) are saying. It’s the same thing they told me after Givot Olam announced its 2 billion barrel “discovery” in 2004.

Bottom Line: Givot Olam’s announcement of a 1.5 billion barrel discovery is highly speculative and most likely exaggerated. A “discovery” doesn’t mean how many barrels a company can actually commercially produce (2004′s 2 billion barrel “discovery” commercially produced exactly zilch). We’ll need to wait until Givot Olam submits their definitive report in September and watch production on the Meged 5. Yesterday’s announcement created a lot of hoopla, but nobody, including Givot Olam, knows the substantive reality of the “discovery” at this point.

But that didn’t stop some Israeli news agencies and  Christian websites (Joel Rosenberg’s included) from running the headline “1.5 BILLION BARRELS OF OIL DISCOVERED IN ISRAEL” with few, if any, facts to back up the headline.

So why am I raining on everyone’s parade? Here’s why: the truth. There’s nobody that believes Israel will discover oil in a big way more than I do (except maybe John Brown of Zion Oil and Tovia Luskin of Givot Olam). And I believe the Bible (Torah) points to that discovery (so do John Brown and Tovia Luskin). But sensational headlines taken from unsubstantiated announcements don’t forward the search. When sensational headlines (like the 2 billion barrel “discovery” in 2004) don’ t pass the test of reality, they only disappoint the folks who believed them in the first place and hurt the credibility of those who ran the headline. That  said, here are the facts:

• The Bible (Torah) states that Jacob (Israel) would “suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.” (Deut 32:13) Of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) it states: “Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof …. (Deut. 33:13-16).  That Zebulun and Issachar “shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand.” (Deut 33:19) And that Asher would “dip his foot in oil.” (Duet 33:24)
• Tovia Luskin and John Brown founded their oil exploration companies based on their belief that scripture points to a major oil discovery in Israel.
• Zion Oil & Gas and Givot Olam have proven that oil exists deep below the territories the Bible (Torah) said it would be found.   Givot Olam has pumped more than 3,000 barrels of it in the last week and a half.
• Serious geological studies by the Geophysical Institute in Israel and the US Geological Survey have backed up Luskin’s and Brown’s belief by stating that they estimate a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of oil and 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are recoverable in the Levant Basin, which includes onshore and offshore Israel.
• Enough natural gas to supply all of Israel’s needs into the foreseeable future has already been discovered off the coast of Northern Israel.

The facts are enough. Israel has discovered huge quantities of natural gas, they’ve discovered oil right where the Bible said it would be, and I believe Israel is on the cusp of discovering major quantities of producible oil, both onshore and offshore – enough to supply them into the foreseeable future.  It’s happening now, but it hasn’t happened yet. The prophecy of Israel’s oil, I believe, is being fulfilled before our eyes, but it hasn’t been fulfilled yet. Misleading headlines aside, Givot Olam’s discovery is a part of that fulfillment. I’ll report the facts to you as we see them unfold. In the meantime here’s a more balanced article on the subject from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/givot-olam-meged-has-1-5b-barrels-of-oil-1.308683

Steve Spillman

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