Zerah Oil And Gas Explorations LP (TASE: ZRAH) today notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) that its partner in the offshore Gulliver license, Ginko Oil Exploration LP, has signed an agreement with the Geophysical Institute of Israel for geophysical and geological services in the area of the license and an area south of it down to Ashdod.
The first stage of these services includes setting a database of all data pertaining to the license and its offshore and onshore environment. Zerah estimates that this stage will take three months and cost $100,000, which it will share equally with Ginko.
The second stage of the services will include analysis of the material collected in the first stage, the general definition of drilling targets to assess the regions and depth range for detailed mapping; planning and executing or assisting in a seismic survey and analyzing it, and preparing infrastructure for drilling.
Ginko and Zerah obtained the Gulliver license two weeks ago from the Petroleum Law advisory council at the Ministry of National Infrastructures. The offshore license is a 900-square kilometer strip up to 10 kilometers from the shoreline stretching from Rishon LeZion to Haifa.
Last week, the partnerships also received the Orly license for oil and gas exploration in an area near Arad in the southern Judean Desert, above the Dead Sea. The Orly license is adjacent to Zerah's Tamrur Cliff (Tzuk Tamrur) 4 well, where production tests are currently underway.
Zerah's share price rose 1.7% in morning trading to NIS 0.12, giving a market cap of NIS 228 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 24, 2010
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