Is Israel sitting on enormous oil reserve? Company uses biblical verses to locate drilling
Posted: September 21, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern
Drill site at 'crown of Joseph' (photo: Zionoil.com) KIBBUTZ MA'ANIT, Israel – Is Israel sitting on an enormous oil reserve mapped out in the Old Testament that when found will immediately change the geopolitical structure of the Middle East and confirm the validity of the Bible to people around the world?
So believes John Brown, an evangelical Christian and founder and chairman of Zion Oil and Gas, a company he and others poured several million dollars into to drill a hole 15,000 feet deep that will as soon as next week tap a rock interval that may contain oil.
"The Bible spells out where the oil is," Brown told WND yesterday outside his drilling rig off a highway between Haifa and Tel Aviv.
"It's very specific. Now we're here to find it, and I know that when we do, the Scriptures will come alive for everyone who hears about it. And Israel will have enough oil not to worry about all the implications of the Ar@b states using their oil to threaten and gain power."
Map indicates land given to Twelve Tribes of Israel
Brown, pointing to the Bible he says he always carries with him, referred to several biblical passages he is certain indicate where to find petroleum. He stressed that two passages, detailing God's blessings to each of biblical patriarch Jacob's 12 sons, are very specific:
"Let Asher be blessed ... and let him dip his foot in oil." – Deuteronomy 33:24
"Joseph is a fruitful bough by a well ... blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that couches beneath shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head." – Genesis 49: 22-26 Brown also pointed to other verses, such as the continuation of Joseph's blessing in Deuteronomy 33: "For the deep that couches beneath ... and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of primordial hills, and for the precious things of the earth."
The Twelve Tribes were each given a section of Israel as inheritance, Brown explains.
Mapping the tribes' biblical territory indeed shows that Asher's area resembles a giant foot "dipped" into the top, or "crown" area of the land of Joseph's son, Manasseh.
"The oil is there, where Joseph's head is met by Asher's foot," said Brown.
Brown says he used a strategy explained to him by James Spillman, an evangelical minister and Bible scholar who lectured at his local church, to determine exactly where on the biblical map the oil might be.
He then set out on a quest to find it, forming Zion Oil and Gas, which in 2000 was awarded by the Israeli government a small onshore petroleum license. In 2003, the company was granted an extended license that includes 95,800 acres of the area not far from Tel Aviv that Brown believes contains oil – Kibbutz Ma'anit.
The company immediately attracted some of the industry's top talent, including its current CEO Gene Soltero, a successful drilling veteran, and Glen Perry, its executive vice-president, who previously engineered for oil giants Exxon and Energy Reserve Group.
"Our project, while it may be based on faith and the Bible, is entirely grounded in geology and scientific evidence," said Perry.
Perry said the company, as well as independent contractors, conducted seismic and geologic studies that found the drill area contains signs of hydrocarbons evidencing likely oil and rock intervals deep in the ground conducive to petroleum storage.
Soltero calls his company's project "a class A drillable prospect with reasonable chances of success ... drillable by any international standards."
Another company previously drilled in Ma'anit through several earth layers to a depth of 7,600 feet, past the Jurassic crest, but did not permeate any reefs containing petroleum and reportedly had to suspend operations due to lack of funds.
Geologists told Zion Oil the Jurassic area beneath the drilling site consisted of closely packed limestone that was not porous enough to store vast sums of oil.
So Zion, backed by some cash from private Jewish and Christian investors, set up shop and dug past the Jurassic zone, drilling to about 15,000 feet to the deep Triassic layers, where tests indicate 10 rock intervals may contain oil.
Engineers the next few days will shoot large, pressurized rock perforating bullets into one of the intervals Brown hopes will contain oil or at least more oil-bearing hydrocarbons indicating petroleum is nearby.
"I think we may see petroleum come out," said Brown. "It doesn't happen right away, it takes a few days, but something might be happening really, really soon."
Perry said if the company doesn't strike oil with this week's perforation, "we'll keep searching. There are several other rock intervals. This is just one of many possibilities."
The company also says studies indicate a large structural feature perhaps 5,000-10,000 feet deeper then the current drilling zone may contain a formation that has enough oil to make Israel a world class producer.
"These kinds of similar zones around the world have contained billions of barrels," said Soltero.
For Brown, it's all about Israel.
"You have these Ar@b states that threaten boycotts and throw their oil weight around to get countries to pressure Israel," said Brown. "Imagine if Israel becomes a huge oil producer. There will be no more placating anyone since they have the oil."
Brown continued: "Of course there are the giant biblical implications. This will get people thinking about God and realizing His word it the truth."
