Zion Oil & Gas Prepares for 2009 Drilling in Israel

December has been a busy month for Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Dallas, Texas and Caesarea, Israel) as they prepare for drilling activities scheduled for early 2009.

The company issued three press releases over the last thirty days that, if we look a little deeper, may give us a forecast on what to expect in 2009.

The first press release, issued on November 14, reported the company’s third quarter financial results. Quarterly reports from public companies are required by SEC regulations. Zion Oil reported a net loss of $865,000 for the quarter (that’s eight cents per share). A loss like that sounds pretty glum unless we remember that Zion, at this point, is an exploration company. They explore for oil. That means they don’t produce income until they find oil. Now about finding oil – here’s something interesting you may miss if you don’t read the press release closely:

“Zion is moving forward with its exploration and drilling plans. We anticipate that the refurbished 2,000 horsepower drilling rig, with which we plan to drill Zion’s planned Ma’anit-Rehoboth #2 well ‘directionally’ to below 18,000 feet, will be shipped into Israel during January 2009. We have almost finished preparing the drill site and expect to commence drilling shortly after the rig arrives on location.”

Zion expects the delivery of a “2,000 horsepower drilling rig” in January. The new rig has a drilling depth capacity of 20,000 feet. Why is that important? In 2005 Zion Oil drilled the Ma’anit #1 well to a depth of 15,500 feet. The deeper they drilled the stronger the oil shows became. So why stop at 15,500 feet? That was all the rig they were drilling with could stand. They wanted to go to 18,000 feet but they would have lost the well due to rig failure if they had kept going. The rig Zion used in 2005 was a 1,000 horsepower rig with at total depth drilling capacity of 15,000 feet. It was the biggest rig in Israel.

So now you can understand why the rig Zion has coming from Turkey in January is such an important part of a commercially viable oil discovery in Northern Israel. Zion discovered oil at the Ma’anit #1 in 2005. They didn’t have the equipment finish the job. Come January they will.

The next press release, issued December 2, announced Zion issuing units and the second closing of their current public offering. Zion issued 350,994 units. A unit is one share of Zion stock and one warrant, giving the purchaser the option to buy one more share at a fixed price ($7.00) any time between the closing of the offering and January 31, 2012. Zion’s stock, as I write this post is at $6.20; it’s been bouncing between $6.10 and $6.50 over the last thirty days. That stock was issued at $7.00 in January of 2007 when the company went public. The fact that the stock has pretty much held its value for two years without any oil production or revenue, and in light of the current global economic meltdown is more than impressive. Makes me wish General Motors and Bank of America stock were as stable. By the way, this public offering has its final closing on January 9. After that, the public will not be able to buy more units (one share of stock & one warrant).

Let’s put two and two together. Zion is taking delivery on the rig that will reach the depth they couldn’t get to when they drilled in 2005. Zion’s public offering is closing January 9. Those who bought or buy  (we still have a few weeks left) during the current offering get one share of stock and the right to buy another share at $7.00 any time before January 31, 2012. If Zion’s stock has held its value in the last two years in spite of it not producing any oil revenue and a world economic collapse, imagine where it could go with an oil discovery. I’ll leave the rest of the math to you.

Finally, the last press release issued December 16; Zion announced the purchase of over $1 million in drilling pipe, crating up the drilling rig for transport to Israel and final preparations at the drill site. This isn’t just a post on the internet, folks. It’s the real deal. Zion Oil will be drilling at the first of the year. And who will be a part of whatever happens to Zion in 2009 will be determined when the public offering closes in January.

You can read all of Zion Oil’s press releases at http://zionoil.com/press-releases. The brilliant analysis and all news about oil and Israel, you can get right here at http://oilinisrael.net.

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