A lamp lit with oil from Israel’s first well at Ampal House here today symbolized Israel’s hope and joy at the discovery of oil in the northern Negev. The lamp was lit by Abraham Dickenstein, president of Ampal-American Israel Corporation, with the first sample of the oil from the new well, which had just arrived here by air.
Mr. Dickenstein paid tribute to Israel’s pioneering spirit as exemplified in the oil strike, and added that the strike was the product of that spirit “together with the know how, the financial and moral support supplied by a group of American investors.”
Mr. Dickenstein underlined that Israel had a ready market for oil, that she had a refinery capable of handling production, that the refinery was convenient to the well and that there existed a pool of skilled labor. He stressed the fact that Israel alone could supply the necessary market, without any reference to finding customers elsewhere, since Israel was a relatively large consumer of oil for power production purposes.
Philip Cohen, Ampal general secretary in Israel, who had just arrived from Israel with the first samples of oil, gave an eye-witness account of the scene at the site of the strike. He also stressed the convenient location of the gusher, which made transportation to the Haifa refineries commercially feasible. Haifa is about 100 miles from Heletz, where the gusher was brought in.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
