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Oil Drilling Abandoned in Gaza Strip; Traces Found in Haifa Area

February 9, 1955
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Oil drilling at Beeri, in the vicinity of the Gaza strip, was halted today following a negative report on the drilling. The well had been sunk 11, 965 feet before the Lapidoth Company decided to abandon it. The company has already begun work on a second hole.

Meanwhile, traces of oil have been found in a well being drilled near Zichron Yaacov, south of Haifa, by Pontiac Petroleums Ltd, and the Israel Continental Oil Company, according to an announcement by Konrad Shtickgold, who heads the field operations. He said the well, “Carmel Number One,” has been sunk to a depth of 8, 470 feet after various favorable signs were found, and that at this depth traces of crude oil were found.

Mr. Shtickgold reported that oil geologists had concluded that the oil had escaped from one formation to another and that the oil is present. As a result it is not yet known definitely whether commercial exploitation is possible, pending further geological studies.

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