DALLAS and CAESAREA, Israel, April 14, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZN) reported today that the Israeli Petroleum Commissioner's Office, on behalf of the State of Israel, has notified Zion that it will be awarded a new petroleum exploration license on land within Zion's previous (and now expired) Issachar-Zebulun Permit area. The new license has been named by Zion, the "Jordan Valley License". Zion expects to formally receive the license soon.
The Jordan Valley License area is to the east of Zion's Joseph license area and Zion's Asher-Menashe license area and to the south of the Sea of Galilee. It traverses south along the western Jordan River Valley.
Zion's Chief Executive Officer, Richard Rinberg, said today, "We are truly excited and very pleased that the State of Israel will award us our new Jordan Valley License. We continue to implement our exploration and drilling program and build on our progress to date. In 2011, we intend to acquire additional seismic and other geological and geophysical data in our new license area, as we endeavour to refine our potential drilling prospects in this area. Meanwhile the drilling operations at our Ma'anit-Joseph #3 well continue, as we strive for our primary target in deep Permian age rock, expected at a depth of over 19,000 feet (5,790 meters). The Ma'anit-Joseph #3 well is already one of the deepest wells ever drilled onshore Israel."
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 on-shore between Haifa and Tel Aviv. It currently holds two petroleum exploration licenses, the Joseph License and the Asher-Menashe License, between Netanya, in the south, and Haifa, in the north, covering a total of approximately 162,000 acres.
The Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6850
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Statements in this press release that are not historical fact, including statements regarding Zion's planned operations, drilling efforts and potential results are forward-looking statements as defined in the "Safe Harbor" provision 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