Massive Israel oil discovery

A large amount of oil has been found on the Golan Heights.

According to the report, recent exploratory drilling on the Golan has located a reserve of enough oil to supply Israel’s needs for many years to come.

Exploitation of the Golan oil discovery is opposed by environmental groups.

“We are talking about a strata which is 350 m thick and what is important is the thickness and the porosity”, Dr. Yuval Bartov, Afek Oil and Gas’ chief geologist, told Channel 2 News. Israel now imports up to three quarters of its oil from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, the Financial Times reported in August.

“We are talking about significant quantities”, he said.

Despite the company’s announcement, until actual production is attempted at the site, there is no way to know the size of the reservoir – or whether the reservoir is one that could produce oil in an economically viable way and what the quality of the oil is.

The company will now determine whether the oil can be easily removed without high production costs. Afek is a subsidiary of the America’s Genie Energy.

The Ofek company, which conducted the drilling on the southern Golan Heights, claims that the reserve contains almost 1 billion barrels of black gold. “We came here thinking maybe yes or maybe no and now things are really happening”, Bartov added. It’s a fantastic feeling. The worldwide community considers the Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria in 1967, as occupied territory and does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the region.