Israeli oil company, Givot Olam Oil Exploration LP (GIVO.L.TV), says it has made the largest oil find in the country's history. The company said it had discovered reserves of one billion barrels, of which about 20% are commercially exploitable. Israel currently produces less than 1,000 barrels of oil a day -a minuscule amount by world standards.
Israel has sizeable deposits of oil shale, perhaps 600 million tons recoverable, with average production of about 9,000 bbl/d. Most of Israel's shale oil resources are located in the Rotem basin region of the northern Negev desert near the Dead Sea. Oil shale is sedimentary rock containing organic material from which liquid fuel may be extracted, at a rate of perhaps 15-17 gallons of oil per ton of shale.
Even though oil exploration in Israel has not proven successful in the past (current output is less than 1,000 bbl/d), drilling is being stepped up. Israel's Petroleum Commission has estimated that the country could contain 5 billion barrels of oil reserves, most likely located underneath natural gas reserves, and that offshore gas potentially could supply Israel's short-term energy needs. Geologically, Israel appears to be connected to the oil-rich Paleozoic petroleum system stretching from Saudi Arabia through Iraq to Syria.
An estimated 420 oil wells have been drilled in Israel since the 1940s, with little success. In late September 2000, a contract was signed between U.S.-based Ness Energy International and Lapidoth Israel Oil Prospectors Corp. to commence further work on the Har Sedom 1 well. Ness Energy announced that it was exploring for oil in the Masada Lease near the Dead Sea and the Israeli exploration company Ginko announced plans to drill for oil on the Ein Gedi block in the northwestern Dead Sea.
