Oilman Uses Bible to Search in Oil-Dependent Israel

GEOLOGY via THEOLOGY

In the oil-rich Middle East, Israel is a dry hole, at least until now. But Texas-based Zion Oil & Gas founder John Brown thinks he may have found the clue to guide him to the lost tribes of Israel's treasure—not in a drill log or a geochemical survey, but in the Bible.

The clues are cryptic and poetic at best. One combines Deuteronomy 33:24 verses, "let Asher be blessed with children... let his foot be dipped in oil" with the vaguely toe-shaped southern boundary of the tribe of Asher in Biblical times. Another, in Genesis, cites the tribe of Joseph, an adjacent territory: "...blessings of the deep that couches beneath shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head."

1759 Map of Israel, courtesy Wikipedia.org

Using these clues, Brown has invested in a drilling project on the Ma'anit Plain, an inland field between the central and northern Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The 165-foot Zion oil rig is marked with Israeli and Texas State flags, and digging goes on all day, 24 hours a day—except on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.

Brown has no previous experience in finding oil, so Glen Perry, now the Executive Vice President of Zion Oil, was initially skeptical—but on reviewing information provided by Zion's geologist Steven Pierce and its drilling manager Stacy Cude, he became excited. Perry and the other two men (who have plenty of experience finding and drilling for oil for such companies as Shell and ExxonMobil) may have found a reef structure, similar to structures that produce oil in Texas and Oklahoma.

In an article in Oil & Gas Journal written before he came to work for Zion, Steven Pierce outlined the potential of the Kibbutz Ma'anit site, discussing three reefs that occupy 14,000 acres where Zion is now exploring. Pierce's conclusion: "Zion has a strong probability of making a significant discovery of some 484 million barrels of oil."

The significance to global oil supplies is doubtful. But the impact of such a find for Israel, which currently must import nearly every drop of oil, is enormous. Israel imports nearly 300,000 barrels a day—a find of 484 million barrels would represent almost five years' supply. With oil prices near $70 a barrel, the Ma'anit find could bring in more than $34 billion if it pans out.

Other minor oil finds have occured along the northern coast of Israel, but these have proven difficult to extract (as in the oil shales of Efre). Natural gas wells drilled in Israel's offshore territory in the Mediterranean have also disappointed, producing only minor amounts of much-needed fuel.

Other evangelist oil-explorers have drilled in Israel without finding anything—including one previous dry hole drilled in the Ma'anit Plain. Hayseed Stevens even mixed "creation science" with his Biblical clues to pinpont a drill-site at the lowest spot in Israel, because "the Dead Sea is at the lowest point on Earth [sic] and as everyone knows, fluids flow downhill." Two dry holes and over $25 million later, no oil has yet been discovered in the Dead Sea Plain.

Still, Brown is not discouraged. When his Bible and his experts are both telling him the oil is there, he'll keep drilling. "Of course there are the giant biblical implications," Brown said. "This will get people thinking about God and realizing His word is the truth."
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