DALLAS and CAESAREA, Israel, April 18, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. ("the Company or "Zion") (Nasdaq:ZN) announced today that, on April 16, 2013, Zion submitted to Israel's Petroleum Commissioner and other Ministry officials an application seeking a Petroleum Exploration License in the Megiddo-Jezreel Valley area, onshore Israel, covering an area of approximately 98,000 acres. As proposed, the Megiddo-Jezreel Valley license area boundary is adjacent to and westward of Zion's existing Jordan Valley License No. 393, which covers approximately 56,000 acres. If granted, the new Megiddo-Jezreel License would likely be for an initial three-year term with options to extend the license annually up to seven years total.
In addition, on April 10, 2013, Zion also submitted to Israel's Petroleum Commissioner an application seeking a one-year extension for its existing Joseph License No. 339, which covers approximately 83,000 acres.
Victor G. Carrillo, Zion's President and Chief Operating Officer, said today, "Submitting our Megiddo-Jezreel Valley license application is a very important step for Zion's future exploration efforts. This is but a first step in a long process before we can initiate our first exploratory well in the new license area but we look forward to getting to that point as expeditiously as possible. We thank all of our dedicated and loyal supporters."
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 onshore in Israel. It currently holds three petroleum exploration licenses: the Joseph License (on approximately 83,000 acres) and the Asher-Menashe License (on approximately 79,000 acres), both 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. Not including the proposed new license area of approximately 98,000 acres, Zion's total license area currently amounts to approximately 218,000 acres.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Statements in this communication that are not historical fact, including statements regarding Zion's planned operations, plans to apply for new exploration licenses and the likelihood of being awarded these licenses, 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: http://www.zionoil.com