DALLAS and CAESAREA, Israel, July 16, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZN) announced today that on July 15, 2010 it completed its previously announced rights offering. The preliminary outcome of the rights offering, as of the close of business on July 15, 2010, indicates that subscriptions of approximately 2.3 million shares, for gross proceeds of approximately $11.5 million, will be accepted (including over-subscription). 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 notwithstanding significant adverse market conditions. While the $11.5 million proceeds is not enough by itself to proceed with our planned drilling subsidiary, it will provide us with financial and operating flexibility and will enable us to further our exploration and drilling program significantly."
Under the completed rights offering, holders of record of Zion's common stock were given non-transferable subscription rights to purchase one share of common stock for every two shares of stock owned, as of the close of business on May 6, 2010. Each subscription right entitled the holder to purchase one share of Zion stock at a price of $5.00, irrespective of the market price.
Zion is currently conducting site construction in anticipation for drilling its next well, the Ma'anit-Joseph # 3 well. Drilling is scheduled to begin in August 2010.
For updates on the drilling activity please visit Zion's website "www.zionoil.com%26index=1">www.zionoil.com".
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.
The Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6850
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.