DALLAS and CAESAREA, Israel, May 25, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZN) announced today that it recently signed an agreement with Kibbutz Ma'anit, the leaseholder of the land containing Zion's planned next well, the Ma'anit-Joseph #3 well. Under the terms of the agreement, Kibbutz Ma'anit grants Zion access to Kibbutz land and permission to drill the Ma'anit-Joseph #3 well.
The Ma'anit-Joseph #3 well, scheduled to "spud" (that is, begin drilling) in August 2010, is planned to be drilled below 18,000 feet and is targeted at the 'deep' Permian geologic formation. If successful, it will be the first well drilled to the Permian in Northern Israel. The commencement of the drilling program is still subject to receipt of various government permits.
Zion Oil & Gas also announced today that it has signed an agreement with the Geophysical Institute of Israel relating to the acquisition of a total of approximately 64 kilometers of two-dimensional seismic lines located within Zion's Issachar-Zebulun Permit area and Zion's Asher-Menashe License area.
Zion's Chief Executive Officer, Richard Rinberg, said today, "The signing of the agreement with Kibbutz Ma'anit allows us to move forward with our plans to drill our next well, the Ma'anit-Joseph #3 well. We are also pleased to have been able to come to terms with the Geophysical Institute of Israel regarding the field acquisition of additional seismic lines in our petroleum exploration areas. The proposed seismic acquisition should help us to evaluate the next steps we need to take with respect to our temporarily suspended Elijah #3 well and also to identify one or more prospects within our Issachar-Zebulun Permit area."
Zion's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "ZN" and Zion's warrants trade under the symbol "ZNWAW".
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.
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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Statements in this communication that are not historical fact, including statements regarding Zion's planned operations, geophysical and geological data and interpretation, anticipated attributes of geological strata being drilled, drilling efforts and locations, the presence or recoverability of hydrocarbons, sufficiency of cash reserves, ability to raise additional capital, timing and potential results thereof and plans contingent thereon are forward-looking statements as defined in the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements are based on assumptions that are subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unpredictable factors, many of which are described in Zion's periodic reports filed with the SEC and are beyond Zion's control. These risks could cause Zion's actual performance to differ materially from the results predicted by these forward-looking statements. Zion can give no assurance that the expectations reflected in these statements will prove to be correct and assumes no responsibility to update these statements.
Zion's homepage may be found at: www.zionoil.com