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.
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 and potential results thereof and plans contingent thereon, the impact of the procurement or non-procurement of applied for licenses and permits and license extensions, anticipated attributes of geological strata being drilled, the presence or recoverability of hydrocarbons, the sufficiency of cash reserves and ability to raise additional capital 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
A map accompanying this release is available at http://media.globenewswire.com/cache/11950/file/10668.pdf