Israeli oil prospecting companies’ shares and stocks rose sharply in the Stock Exchange yesterday following a statement by Itzhak Modai, the Minister of Energy and infrastructure, that chances are better than previously believed for oil finds in three recent diggings.
Modai said indications of oil were especially encouraging in the off-shore drilling operations at EI Arish where natural gas under high pressure was found and in the Raffah area in northern Sinai and at Atour in the Gulf of Suez. However, oil experts said that in spite of Modai’s optimistic statement it was too early to assume that there is enough oil at those locations to have any major significance. Only more drillings will determine if there is oil in workable quantities.
Nevertheless, Modai said there are sufficient encouraging indications which warrant continued searching for oil. The drilling at Atour, he noted, is financed by a foreign company and such an investment by a foreign firm would not have been undertaken unless there was a chance for an oil find. He concluded, therefore, that oil is present at Atour and the search for it will continue.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
