Oil Fields Exploration (1992) LP (TASE: FILS.L-M) has joined Israel's natural gas rush, following in the steps of Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L), Ratio Oil Exploration Ltd. (TASE:RATI.L), Modiin Energy LP (TASE:MDIN.L), Lapidoth Israel Oil Prospectors Corporation Ltd. (TASE: LAPD), and other firms. Oil Fields Exploration today notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) that it has applied to the Ministry of National Infrastructures for a gas exploration license on a 350-square kilometer tract in the Arad area in the northern Negev near the Dead Sea.
The company has applied for a "sweeping" license. Yesterday, "Globes" reported that Isramco, Ratio, and Modiin are battling for gas exploration licenses in a 16-square kilometer site offshore from Ashdod.
The TASE suspended trading in Oil Fields' share in August 2009, due to "questions about the limited partnership's affairs", as the TASE management put it, after the company announced that its board of directors had decided to liquidate it or "find another way to keep the partnership alive, in view of the failure of its efforts to raise capital because the partnership has no money to continue operations." The company fired all its managers and directors a few months later.
Geologist Dr. Michael Gardosh of the Geophysical Institute of Israel said, "Gas has been found at several fields in the Arad area since the 1960s. There was the Zohar field, and the Kidud field adjacent to it. Gas was also found at the Kanaim field. It should be noted that just about all the gas discovered there was pumped a long time ago. Gas was in the past found at depths of 1-1.5 kilometers. This is an area that definitely produced gas in the past, and people are apparently trying something similar there now."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 20, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010