Drilling success in Israel reaches 5,000 meters

Louise Davis

Zion Oil & Gas has successfully drilled its Megiddo-Jezreel 1 well to a total depth of 5,060 meters. Zion also successfully obtained three open-hole wireline log suites (including a formation image log). The well has also been cased and cemented in preparation for upcoming testing of multiple zones of interest, including zones where free-flowing hydrocarbons were collected after circulating mud in the borehole.

Zion's President and Chief Operations Officer, Dustin Guinn, stated, "We are extremely pleased with the completion of drilling of the MJ 1 well. While it may have taken longer than we would have liked, we had more than 119,000 man-hours with zero recordable incidents while drilling more than three miles into the earth. On a wildcat exploration well, this is an achievement in which all involved should take pride. We also recognise that the goal of this well was to find oil, and we can say with absolute confidence that we were successful in attaining that goal. The next crucial step is being able to effectively test and establish the well's commerciality."

Zion's CEO, Victor G. Carrillo, added, "The logs appear to confirm what we know from seeing oil mixed in with the mud – that we encountered live oil in the deep portion of the well. We still await a full interpretation of the image log obtained in our last logging run to ascertain fracture location and intensity. Our interpretation, supported by third party petrophysical analysis, shows multiple zones exhibiting key properties that we will test for production capacity."

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