Zion Oil and Gas Inc (QX) (ZNOG)

Not All Oil Is Equal: Energy, Quality, Zion



Energy Return, Crude Quality, and the Case for Conventional

ZNOG

NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE. This is educational research for the shareholder community. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Nothing here confirms any reserve, resource, discovery, or result that Zion Oil & Gas has not filed. Where Zion's project is discussed it is prospective only — the company currently reports no proved reserves and no production. Do your own research and consult a licensed professional before making any financial decision.

We talk about "a barrel of oil" as if all barrels were the same thing. They are not. Two barrels can carry the same forty-two gallons and be worth wildly different amounts, cost wildly different amounts of energy to produce, and demand wildly different amounts of processing before they become the fuel in your tank.

Behind every barrel sit two hidden measures. The first is how much energy it takes to get the oil out relative to the energy it contains — a ratio researchers call EROI, Energy Return on Investment. The second is the quality of the crude itself — how light or heavy, how sweet or sour. Together they explain why Saudi Arabia profits when prices are low while Canadian oil sands and Venezuelan tar cannot, why some "oil" has never been produced at scale, and why a conventional, light, sweet, onshore discovery is one of the most desirable things in the entire energy business.

.WHAT EROI ACTUALLY MEASURES
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EROI is a ratio: the energy the oil delivers divided by the energy spent finding, drilling, lifting, and processing it. An EROI of 20:1 means twenty units come back for every one invested. An EROI of 2:1 means you barely came out ahead.

Society runs on net energy — the surplus left after the energy system feeds itself. Charles Hall and David Murphy, who formalized the concept, argue a modern society needs roughly 5:1 at a minimum to function, and closer to 12–13:1 for an advanced economy (Hall & Murphy 2010).

.Keep that floor in mind — several real sources of "oil" sit at or below it.

.The one caveat that matters most: where do you stop counting?

EROI depends entirely on where you draw the system boundary. Count only the wellhead and a source looks efficient. Widen the fence to refining, then transport, then delivery, and the same barrel's EROI shrinks at every step.


(The same barrel yields a different EROI depending on where you stop counting. Illustrative, conventional oil; concept after Hall et al. 2014.)

This is why the same field is quoted at 25:1 in one study and 8:1 in another, with neither wrong — they drew the fence in different places. Comparing EROI numbers means making sure the fences match.

.THE EROI LADDER, BOTTOM TO TOP
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The ladder chart at the top of this post lays out the landscape. The ranges are wide on purpose — they reflect the boundary problem and the genuine spread between studies. Precision here would be false precision.


Oil shale (kerogen), Green River retort — 1.5–4 : 1
Oil sands, in-situ / SAGD — 2.9–5.4 : 1
Venezuela Orinoco (extra-heavy) — ~3–5 : 1 (by class)
Oil sands, surface mining — 4–8 : 1
Shale / tight gas (Marcellus, Barnett) — 8–23 : 1
Conventional natural gas — 10–20 : 1
Conventional oil (Zion's category) — 10–25 : 1
Tight oil, Bakken (wellhead) — 24–36 : 1
Saudi / Middle East giant conventional — up to ~100 : 1


.The bottom rung — oil shale, and a critical name trap

At the very bottom sits oil shale, the kerogen rock of formations like the Green River. The organic matter never fully cooked into oil; to get fuel you must mine and retort it. Estimates cluster around 1.5–4:1 (Cleveland & O'Connor 2011) — at or below the societal-minimum floor. That single fact is why roughly 1.5 trillion barrels of theoretical oil-in-place have never been produced at scale. When it costs nearly as much energy to make the fuel as the fuel provides, the economics collapse regardless of price.

.Name trap: "oil shale" is NOT "shale oil." They are almost opposites in EROI terms, and even industry people conflate them.

.The heavy-oil tier

Canadian oil sands by surface mining run ~4–8:1; the same bitumen by in-situ steam (SAGD) is lower, ~2.9–5.4:1, because you burn large volumes of gas to make steam (Brandt et al. 2013). Venezuela's Orinoco extra-heavy belongs to the same class and must be blended with diluent just to flow. Enormous resources — but hovering near the sustainability floor.

.The surprising rung — tight oil, a.k.a. "shale oil"

American tight oil — the light crude fracked from the Bakken, Eagle Ford, and Permian — is the real "shale oil," and at the wellhead it scores shockingly well: the Bakken clusters around 24–36:1 (Brandt et al., Energies 2017). At first glance that beats conventional oil, which sounds absurd.

The resolution is the boundary problem again. That is a wellhead figure.

.Tight-oil wells decline savagely — often most of their lifetime output in the first year or two — so you must drill continuously just to hold output flat.

Widen the fence to include that treadmill, flaring, water, and diluent, and the field-level number falls back toward single digits. Shale oil's EROI is real but boundary-sensitive, and its decline curves are the hidden cost.

.The top rungs, and natural gas and condensate

Conventional oil — crude that flows from a permeable reservoir under pressure or simple lift — sits at ~10–25:1 globally, sliding for decades as easy fields deplete. Middle Eastern supergiants reach ~100:1, the cheapest energy humanity has ever tapped. Conventional gas has declined toward the 10–20:1 band (Freise 2011); shale gas sits lower and noisier, ~8–23:1. Condensate is the quiet winner: the light hydrocarbons that come up alongside gas or light oil ride along at almost no extra energy cost, and they are a premium light product.

.THE SECOND AXIS — CRUDE QUALITY
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EROI tells you how hard the oil was to get. It says nothing about how good the oil is once you have it. That is the second axis.


(Crude quality by API gravity and sulfur. Meged is a cited data point; the Zion zone is prospective by regional analogue only — not a reserve or discovery.)

API gravity measures light vs. heavy — higher API is lighter and yields more high-value product (light is above ~31°, heavy below ~22°). Sulfur sets sweet vs. sour — below ~0.5% is sweet and refines cleanly; above that is sour and needs extra, energy-hungry processing. The premium corner is light and sweet: WTI (~39.6° API, ~0.24% S) and Brent (~38° API, ~0.37% S). The discount corner is heavy and sour: Orinoco (~9° API, ~4.5% S) and Canadian/Mexican heavy grades. The two axes reinforce each other — light sweet crude comes from easier reservoirs and loses less energy to refining. Heavy sour gets hit twice. "Light, sweet, and conventional" is the triple crown.

.BRINGING IT TO ZION
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If everything above is the map, where would Zion's project sit? Start with what is filed and nothing more.

.Zion is an exploration company. It reports no proved reserves and no production.

Its focus is the onshore Megiddo-Jezreel project (License 434), working the MJ-01 and MJ-02 wells. What follows is about category and plausibility, not a discovery — because there is no discovery to report.

.On the extraction axis — favorable end by design

Megiddo-Jezreel is a conventional onshore target: deep reservoir rock, produced (if productive) by drilling and lift — not mining, not steam, not retorting. That belongs in the ~10–25:1 conventional band, with none of the penalties that drag the bottom of the ladder down. As an illustrative, deliberately conservative placeholder, ~10:1 is a reasonable way to picture a modest conventional onshore producer.

.That number is illustrative only — it is not a Zion figure, and cannot become one until there is production to measure.

.On the quality axis — the Meged precedent, with strict limits

The useful reference is the Meged field, operated by a different company (Givot Olam) a short distance south. Meged produced from Triassic carbonate reservoirs in the same broad regional petroleum system.

.Confirmed: Meged crude was light and sweet — about 38–40° API and just 0.2% sulfur (Oil & Gas Journal, quoting Givot Olam's executive director; and Givot Olam).

On the quality chart that lands essentially in WTI territory. What Meged tells us: the regional geology here has demonstrably produced premium light sweet crude — type plausibility that a conventional find in the same system could be light and sweet rather than heavy and sour.

.What Meged does NOT tell us: it is not Zion's field. Its oil-in-place says nothing about Zion's volumes. Zion has no reserves, and a nearby field's success is not a promise of Zion's. Meged itself is no longer in active production. The Eagle Ford comparison is method and play-type only, not a claim that Zion's reservoir is geologically identical to anything.

Put the two axes together: the most valuable barrel is cheap in energy to produce (conventional, high-EROI) and premium in quality (light, sweet), with condensate and gas riding along. That combination — if Megiddo-Jezreel ever delivers commercial hydrocarbons — is the favorable end of both ladders at once.

.None of this predicts that Zion will find oil. Exploration is hard, most wildcats disappoint, the license carries its own open questions, and only a successful, tested, commercial well converts geology into value.

.WHY NET ENERGY IS THE REAL STORY
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The oil age has quietly been a story about EROI. The twentieth century ran on ~100:1 supergiant oil. As those fields age and the world turns to tight oil, heavy oil, and kerogen, the average EROI of the oil we produce keeps grinding downward — more of our energy spent just producing energy. In that world, a new conventional, light, sweet, onshore resource — should one ever be proven — is a barrel from the increasingly rare top of both charts. Not all oil is equal, the differences are measurable, and they explain more about the economics of any oil play — Zion's included — than the price ticker ever will.

Sources: Hall, Balogh & Murphy (2009); Hall & Murphy (2010); Hall et al. (2014); Gagnon, Hall & Lambert (2009); Guilford et al. (2011); Brandt et al. (2013); Brandt (2008); Cleveland & O'Connor (2011); Freise (2011); Sell, Murphy & Hall (2011); Aucott & Melillo (2013); Murphy (2013); Oil & Gas Journal; Givot Olam; crude assay data via EIA and industry sources. Zion status per its SEC filings. All EROI ranges are boundary-dependent.

By Grace Alone Go I

Share/Warrant issuances are ZNOG's only business.

Is ZNOG A Good Investment? An Honest Assessment


(Figure 1. The Megiddo-Jezreel License — the single asset on which this entire company depends. ~75,000 acres. License 434 base term expires September 13, 2026.)

An honest risk assessment before you buy — Zion Oil & Gas ($ZNOG) — by Ethan — re-verified against SEC filings July 7, 2026

ZNOG

NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE: I am a long-term shareholder. I am not selling. I have not been paid by Zion Oil & Gas or any affiliated party. I receive no compensation related to ZNOG. This is not investment advice. Every claim is sourced from a public SEC filing or documented public record, re-verified as of July 7, 2026. Market-price figures are derived from named public aggregators and labeled as such. Nothing here confirms anything the company has not itself filed or published — including any license extension, which is NOT confirmed in any filing as of this date.

Read this before you buy. Read it before you add. Then decide.

.START HERE: THE WORST CASE
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Before anything else, I want you to understand the worst case. Not the unlikely case. The documented, legally disclosed, auditor-confirmed worst case.

You put money into ZNOG. The horizontal sidetrack at MJ-02 — which is underway right now — does not produce commercial flow rates. The stock falls — based on the 2018 dry hole, potentially 70% or more from current levels. The company struggles to raise capital. The license lapses or is not renewed. The company winds down.

In that scenario, what do you get back?

.THE DOCUMENTED WORST CASE:

In a wind-down or bankruptcy, common shareholders are last in line. Behind every creditor. Behind every debt obligation. After 26 years since its founding in 2000 and $303.6 million in accumulated losses with zero revenue ever generated, common shareholders in that scenario could receive nothing. Not reduced value. Nothing.

That is not a prediction. It is a risk disclosed in every single quarterly filing this company has made for several consecutive years. If reading that makes you want to stop — good. This article is working. If you are still here, read everything below.

.PART ONE — WHAT ZION OIL & GAS ACTUALLY IS
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Zion Oil & Gas is an exploration company. Not a producing company. Not a company with revenue. Not a company with proven reserves. The company's own most recent quarterly filing describes "a history of 25 years of oil & gas exploration in Israel" and states, as of March 31, 2026, that it "has no revenues from its oil and gas operations."

Here is the exact legal language from Zion's Q1 2026 10-Q, filed May 7, 2026:

"The Company has not generated any revenues or operating income since its inception."

.A quarter century of exploration. Zero revenue.

Not declining revenue. Not thin margins. Zero. Every dollar you invest goes into a company that has never generated a single dollar of operating income in its entire history. Most people who find this stock do not know that. Now you do.

(Source: Zion Q1 2026 10-Q, filed May 7, 2026 — SEC EDGAR, CIK 0001131312.)

.PART TWO — GOING CONCERN: WHAT THOSE TWO WORDS MEAN
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In every quarterly filing for several consecutive years, Zion's filings have carried this specific warning:

"These factors raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern for one year from the date the financials were issued. To carry out planned operations, the Company must raise additional funds through additional equity and/or debt issuances or through profitable operations. There can be no assurance that this capital or positive operational income will be available to the Company, and if it is not, the Company may be forced to curtail or cease exploration and development activities."

.PLAIN ENGLISH:

Going concern is a legal accounting term. When it appears, the company is formally stating there is substantial doubt it can keep operating for the next twelve months without new money. This is NOT boilerplate. This is NOT language every company includes. This is a formal flag because the numbers require it. "Curtail or cease exploration activities" means the rig stops, the crews go home, and the company may shut down.

(Source: Note 1, Q1 2026 10-Q — SEC EDGAR.)

.PART THREE — THE NUMBERS IN PLAIN LANGUAGE
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(Figure 2. ZNOG risk dashboard — share-count growth, financial position, and key risks based on Q1 2026 SEC filings.)

.CASH AND BURN RATE


Cash on hand (March 31, 2026): $12.25 million, including $1.55 million restricted. That sounds reasonable. Here is the context.
Burn rate: historically approximately $8.3 million per year just to keep operating — before the additional cost of the horizontal sidetrack now underway: directional crew, downhole tools, and multi-stage acid stimulation services, which have not been publicly budgeted in full.
At the base rate: the March 31 cash position covers roughly 18 months of base operations. The horizontal program costs more on top of that. The Q2 10-Q, due around August, will show the post-quarter cash position.


.HOW ZION PAYS FOR EVERYTHING — THE DSPP

Zion does not have a major industry partner or a bank loan. It has the Direct Stock Purchase Plan — shareholders buy units, historically shares plus warrants, and Zion uses that cash to operate. In Q1 2026 it raised $8.009 million this way.

.THE CONCENTRATION RISK:

The 2025 annual report disclosed that a large share of DSPP funding comes from a very small number of participants. The company's survival depends substantially on a handful of large buyers continuing to write checks. If those buyers stop or reduce, the primary funding mechanism weakens — potentially at the worst possible moment.

(Source: 2025 Annual Report, Form 10-K, filed March 19, 2026 — SEC EDGAR.)

.THE ACCUMULATED DEFICIT

.$303.6 million.

That is the total spent in excess of what has been earned since 2000. Twenty-six years. Zero revenue. $303 million gone.

.THE SHARE COUNT AND DILUTION


Shares outstanding (March 31, 2026): 1,182,089,454 — over 1.1 billion shares.
One year prior: approximately 870 million shares. Growth in one year: roughly 36%.
Maximum authorized: 1,600,000,000 shares — with approximately 418 million remaining at March 31.
Important: the March 31 share count predates the June 30 warrant deadline. Any expiring warrants exercised before June 30 added shares. The Q2 10-Q will show the updated count.


.THE WARRANT PICTURE — CHANGED MATERIALLY ON JUNE 30, 2026

At March 31, 2026, the 10-Q warrant table showed 190,687,495 warrants outstanding across six series. Since then, five of the six series have reached their expiration dates:


ZNWBA (841,460 at $0.25) — expired March 31, 2026
ZNWAT (9,019,652 at $0.18) — expired May 31, 2026
ZNWAS (145,180,117 at $0.25) — expired June 30, 2026
ZNWAU (19,147,462 at $0.25) — expired June 30, 2026
ZNWBB (15,000,000 at $0.25) — expired June 30, 2026


The three June 30 series alone totaled 179,327,579 warrants.

.As of July 7, 2026, the only warrant series with a future expiration date is ZNWAA — the tradeable warrant, symbol ZNOGW on OTCQX — 1,498,804 warrants at a $2.00 exercise price, expiring January 31, 2031.

What this means cuts both ways. Warrants exercised before expiry became new shares (dilution realized, cash raised at $0.25 or $0.18 per share). Warrants that lapsed unexercised are simply gone (overhang eliminated, no cash raised). Either way, the forward warrant overhang has collapsed from roughly 190.7 million potential shares to roughly 1.5 million. Exactly how the expiring series split between exercise and lapse will be documented in the Q2 10-Q warrant table.

Every new share issued reduces the value of the shares you already own. At approximately $0.40 per share — the most recent session per public aggregators (Robinhood, SoFi; Stockopedia shows $0.41) — the company's market capitalization is approximately $473-479 million. Built entirely on the hope of a commercial discovery. Not revenue. Not production. Not reserves. Hope.

(Sources: Q1 2026 10-Q, Note 3 warrant table — SEC EDGAR. Price and market cap are derived figures from the named public aggregators as of the most recent session and move daily.)


(Figure 3. How dilution affects per-share value. Every additional share issued reduces what you receive per share from any future discovery.)

.PART FOUR — THE LICENSE CLOCK
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License 434 base term expires:

.September 13, 2026. That is just over two months from today.

The Israeli petroleum framework allows license extensions beyond a base term, potentially year by year up to the statutory ceiling. They are not automatic. Each requires Israeli Ministry of Energy approval and a credible work plan. At the June 2, 2026 annual shareholders meeting, CEO Rob Dunn stated the company's intent to apply for a one-year extension option. That is a stated intention, not a granted extension.

.As of July 7, 2026, no extension beyond September 13, 2026 is confirmed in any SEC filing, press release, or petroleum-registry document. The extension application and its outcome are the open question of the next two months.

.WHAT THIS MEANS:

If the MJ-02 horizontal sidetrack disappoints, Zion must pursue the extension process with no commercial production, going concern language in its filings, and a funding mechanism that just absorbed a credibility hit. Israel has cooperated with Zion consistently across its licenses over 26 years — and extensions are never guaranteed. This article treats the outcome as exactly what it is: undetermined.

(Sources: License 434 award — company release, September 14, 2023; Israeli Petroleum Law terms — SEC EDGAR exhibit; June 2, 2026 ASM statements — company presentation.)

.PART FIVE — OPERATIONAL RISKS THAT CAN STOP EVERYTHING
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.IRAN AND REGIONAL CONFLICT

The Q1 2026 10-Q explicitly names regional conflict as an operational risk. The drilling crew was evacuated due to regional conflict and did not return until May 13, 2026. They can be evacuated again at any time. If that happens during horizontal drilling — which is now in progress — the program stops. The license clock keeps ticking.

.DIRECTIONAL DRILLING CAN FAIL

Horizontal drilling in a faulted carbonate at roughly 18,000 feet is technically demanding. Measurement-while-drilling tools can fail. The bit can drift out of the target zone.

.Mechanical failure — not geology — killed Givot Olam's Meged-3 well in 2000.

The same class of risk exists at MJ-02.

.THE STIMULATION MAY NOT WORK

Even a perfectly drilled lateral may not produce commercially. The Triassic Mohilla is not uniform. Acid stimulation dissolves rock along existing fractures — it cannot create fractures where none exist. Nobody knows the stimulation response until the acid goes in and the flowback comes back.

.NO PIPELINE

Israel has no onshore oil pipeline in the north. First production would be trucked south to a refinery. This adds cost per barrel and requires sustained operational management from a company with 20 employees.

.PART SIX — IF THE DRILL FAILS, STEP BY STEP
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(Figure 4. MJ-02 outcome scenario map — failure and success consequences documented from Zion SEC filings and Israeli petroleum law.)


Step 1: Zion announces non-commercial results. The stock falls. After the 2018 dry hole the stock declined over 70% from peak. A failed horizontal sidetrack after gas reached surface in 2025 could produce a similar or worse reaction.
Step 2: The DSPP weakens. Shareholder confidence drives DSPP participation. A failed drill damages that confidence. If key participants reduce purchases, the primary funding source weakens at precisely the wrong moment.
Step 3: Zion must find a way to continue. Options: more DSPP share issuances (more dilution), debt (unlikely given the balance sheet), or a farm-out deal with a larger partner (reduces Zion's ownership percentage in any future discovery).
Step 4: The license extension must be secured. Not guaranteed. Requires Ministry of Energy approval and a credible work plan — with the base term expiring September 13, 2026.
Step 5: If capital cannot be raised and the license lapses, the primary asset has no value. The rig — renamed JB-1 in June 2026, net book value $5.853 million per the Q1 10-Q — could be sold. Whatever cash remains after all obligations are met goes to shareholders. In the worst case, that is zero.


.PART SEVEN — IF THE DRILL SUCCEEDS
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Under Israeli petroleum law, a commercial discovery entitles the license holder to a 30-year production lease, extendable to 50 years. Zion moves from exploration company to producing company. Revenue begins. The going concern flag disappears.

.FORREST GARB 2015 RESOURCE ASSESSMENT:

P90 conservative: 20.7 million barrels recoverable. P50 best estimate: 69.7 million barrels. P10 optimistic: 234.6 million barrels. At approximately $20/barrel Israeli netback after royalties, taxes, and operating costs — P50 generates approximately $1.4 billion total lifetime value. Divided across roughly 1.18 billion shares: on the order of $1.00-1.35 per share lifetime. The P10 case generates approximately $3.75-4.50 per share at the March 31 share count — before further dilution during development.

These are hypothetical illustrations built on the Garb resource estimates. They assume a commercial discovery. They are:

.Entirely contingent on commercial success — which has not yet been achieved in 26 years of trying.

.PART EIGHT — THE HONEST BOTTOM LINE
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.THIS IS A SPECULATION, NOT AN INVESTMENT:
An investment has a business generating cash. A speculation is a bet on a future event. This is the latter. There is nothing wrong with speculation — but you must know which one you are doing.

.THE BASE RATE IS AGAINST YOU:
The global success rate for commercial exploration wells is approximately 20-30%. Horizontal drilling plus stimulation improves the odds of making tight rock flow. It does not eliminate risk. Most exploration wells globally do not produce commercially.

.A FAILED DRILL MAY END THE COMPANY:
The going concern language, the capital concentration risk, and the license clock create a real existential threat in a failure scenario.

.THE SHARE COUNT WILL KEEP GROWING:
Even in a success scenario, developing production requires capital. More shares will be issued. The per-share value of any discovery moves with every new share.

.NOBODY KNOWS WHAT IS UNDERGROUND:
Not the CEO. Not the geologists. Not any shareholder on any forum. The drill bit is the only voice that matters — and as of the company's June 10, 2026 filing, it is back at work.

.BEFORE YOU BUY — FIVE QUESTIONS
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Read the actual 10-Q yourself. Do not rely on anyone's summary, including this one.
Read Note 1 of the financial statements. The going concern section. The exact words. Understand what they mean.
Ask yourself: If I lose every dollar I put into ZNOG, does that materially change my life? If yes — if it is money for rent, food, medical care, your children, or retirement — do not invest it here.
Size your position to what you can genuinely afford to lose completely. Not partially. Completely.
Do not buy on excitement alone. Price moves in low-float penny stocks can be driven by factors unrelated to the company. Do not chase price. The stock has traded between $0.15 and $0.70 in the past 52 weeks.


Read the Q1 2026 10-Q for yourself on SEC EDGAR:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001131312/000143774926015655/znog20260331_10q.htm

.DISCLOSURE
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I am a long-term shareholder. I am not selling. I have not been paid by Zion Oil & Gas, its management, or any affiliated party. I receive no compensation of any kind related to ZNOG. I have no financial incentive for you to buy or sell.

I wrote this because new investors are arriving excited, and excitement is not a substitute for information. The people who can least afford to lose money are often the most drawn to a story like this one.

The geological case is real. The technology is now deployed at the well site. The horizontal sidetrack the company has pointed toward for years is finally in motion.

And this is still a speculation with going concern language in every quarterly filing, roughly 1.2 billion shares outstanding, $303.6 million in accumulated losses, zero revenue in 26 years, and a license whose base term expires September 13, 2026 with no extension yet confirmed in any filing.

All of those things are true at the same time.

.Only invest what you can afford to lose completely.

This is my opinion and research only, sourced from public SEC filings and documented public record and re-verified as of July 7, 2026. Market-price figures are derived from named public aggregators. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision.

By Grace Alone Go I

New To ZNOG? Read This First Before Investing


(Figure 1. The Megiddo-Jezreel License — ~75,000 acres in northern Israel. The Zion drill site is marked with a white dot. This is the single asset on which the entire company depends.)

Everything you need before you invest — Zion Oil & Gas ($ZNOG) — by Ethan — re-verified against SEC filings July 7, 2026

ZNOG

NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE: This is my opinion and research only. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Every claim is sourced from a public SEC filing or documented public record, re-verified as of July 7, 2026. Nothing here confirms anything the company has not itself filed or published — including any license extension, which is NOT confirmed in any filing as of this date. Do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. Only invest what you can afford to lose completely.

Before you put a single dollar in, read this. All of it. It will take ten minutes. Those ten minutes may save you from a mistake you cannot undo.

.WHAT THIS COMPANY IS — IN ONE PARAGRAPH
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Zion Oil & Gas (ticker: ZNOG, on OTCQX) is a Dallas-headquartered oil exploration company that holds a license to drill for oil and gas on approximately 75,000 acres in northern Israel — in the Jezreel Valley, near the biblical lands of Megiddo and Jezreel. Founded in 2000, the company describes itself in its own filings as having "a history of 25 years of oil & gas exploration in Israel." It has drilled seven wells. Every well confirmed hydrocarbons are present underground. None has yet produced oil commercially. Right now — as confirmed in the company's June 10, 2026 SEC filing — Zion is executing the first horizontal sidetrack in its history at the MJ-02 well, using technology that did not exist in its current form when the earlier wells were drilled. That horizontal drill is the entire story. It is either the moment everything changes, or it is not.

(Source: Zion Q1 2026 10-Q and June 10, 2026 Form 8-K — SEC EDGAR, CIK 0001131312.)

.THIS IS NOT A SCAM — HERE IS HOW YOU KNOW
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(Figure 2. Where ZNOG sits on the investment risk spectrum — not fraud, not blue chip. A high-risk speculation in a pre-revenue exploration company with legitimate geology.)

If you found this stock through a Christian investing community, you may have wondered whether the biblical framing is a red flag. It is a fair question and deserves a straight answer.

Zion Oil & Gas is a fully reporting SEC company. It files quarterly 10-Q reports and annual 10-K reports, all publicly available on the SEC's EDGAR database. Its financial statements are audited by independent auditors. It has been listed on public markets since January 2007. It has been investigated by the SEC — and that investigation was closed in April 2023 with no enforcement action and no findings against the company.

.DOCUMENTED FACT:

The SEC's Fort Worth Regional Office investigated Zion for nearly five years and concluded on April 5, 2023: "We do not intend to recommend an enforcement action by the Commission against Zion." Both class-action lawsuits filed against the company in 2018 were dismissed — one with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. That is not what happens to fraud.

The founders of this company genuinely believe in the biblical basis for oil in Israel — Deuteronomy 33:24, Genesis 49 — and state that openly in their materials. You do not have to share that belief to evaluate this as an investment. The geology stands independently. The USGS, Beicip-Franlab, and Forrest Garb & Associates have all assessed the resource potential of this region without reference to scripture.

(Source: SEC investigation closed — Zion 8-K, April 6, 2023; all Zion SEC filings — EDGAR.)

.BUT THIS IS STILL A GAMBLE — HERE IS WHY
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Zion has never produced a single barrel of oil commercially. In 26 years since its founding it has generated zero revenue. Zero. Not declining revenue. Not thin margins. The company's own SEC filing states it plainly:

"The Company has not generated any revenues or operating income since its inception."

The company's quarterly filings carry a going concern warning — a formal flag that there is substantial doubt the company can keep operating without new money coming in. The company funds itself by selling shares and warrants to its own shareholders. As of March 31, 2026, it held $12.25 million in cash (including restricted amounts) against an accumulated deficit of $303.6 million.

.IF THE DRILL FAILS:

The stock will fall significantly. The license could lapse. The company may not survive. Common shareholders — the people who own ZNOG stock — are last in line in any wind-down. You could lose every dollar you put in.

(Source: Note 1, going concern — Q1 2026 10-Q, SEC EDGAR.)

.THE ONE RULE BEFORE YOU INVEST IN ANYTHING LIKE THIS
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.Only put in money you can genuinely afford to lose completely.

Not money you are borrowing. Not money from your retirement account. Not money you need for rent, food, medical care, your children's education, or your emergency fund. Not money whose loss would change how you live.

This is a speculative position in a pre-revenue exploration company with going concern language and a license whose base term expires September 13, 2026 — just over two months from now — with the extension question still open. It has real upside if the drill works. It has real and documented downside if it does not.

Size your position accordingly. If $500 disappearing permanently would hurt you, put in $100. If $100 would hurt you, do not invest at all. Watch from the sidelines. You can always buy later if results warrant it.

.THE CASE FOR THE UPSIDE — WHY PEOPLE ARE HERE
==================================================

If the horizontal drill produces commercial oil, here is what the documented record says could follow.

The Forrest Garb & Associates resource assessment (2015) estimated recoverable resources on Zion's license at:


Conservative (P90): 20.7 million barrels recoverable
Best estimate (P50): 69.7 million barrels recoverable
Optimistic (P10): 234.6 million barrels recoverable


Under Israeli petroleum law, a commercial discovery entitles the license holder to a 30-year production lease, extendable to 50 years. The royalty to the Israeli government is 12.5% — owed from the first barrel. Corporate tax is 23%. After deductions and operating costs, an estimated netback per barrel of approximately $19-23 at recent Brent prices is a reasonable illustration.

.THE UPSIDE IN NUMBERS (HYPOTHETICAL, CONTINGENT ON DISCOVERY):

At the P50 best estimate of 69.7 million barrels and a $20/barrel netback, total lifetime value is approximately $1.4 billion — divided across roughly 1.18 billion shares outstanding at March 31, 2026. That is on the order of $1.00-1.35 per share in lifetime value. The P10 optimistic case generates approximately $3.75-4.50 per share at that share count. These numbers are why people are excited. They come from a real independent assessment — and they describe what could be recovered IF a commercial discovery is made.

They are also:

.Entirely contingent on the drill working. Which it may not.

(Source: Forrest A. Garb & Associates 2015 Resource Assessment; Israeli Petroleum Law — SEC EDGAR exhibit.)

.WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW — JULY 2026
==================================================

Here is the operational picture as of the company's most recent SEC filing, the June 10, 2026 Form 8-K:

.Field operations for the planned sidetrack phase of the MJ-02 well have commenced. Zion has re-entered the well and is drilling out the temporary plug. Next comes wellbore conditioning, then the planned horizontal sidetrack drilling itself.

The company also reported that its drilling rig has been re-certified and recommissioned — and renamed JB-1 in honor of Zion's founder, John Brown, who passed away in May 2026 and whose vision established the company's mission.

Why this matters: every previous Zion well went straight down. Vertical wells in this formation confirmed oil is present but could not produce it commercially because the rock is too tight. A horizontal well contacts far more reservoir rock than a vertical well in the same formation, and multi-stage acid stimulation then dissolves rock along natural fractures to help the oil flow. Around the world, horizontal drilling plus stimulation is the method that made tight formations produce where vertical wells never could — formations known for decades before anyone could produce them economically. Israel's deep Triassic carbonates are the same class of problem. MJ-02 is the first properly executed attempt at the solution on Zion's license.

There are also real risks. Regional conflict forced the drilling crew to evacuate — they returned May 13, 2026. They can be evacuated again. The drill can encounter mechanical problems. The formation may not respond to stimulation as expected. Nobody knows until the bit speaks — and the bit is turning now.

One more current fact worth knowing: on June 30, 2026, three large warrant series totaling 179,327,579 warrants reached their expiration date. As of today, per the last filed warrant table, the only series with a future expiration is the tradeable ZNOGW warrant — about 1.5 million warrants expiring in January 2031. The Q2 10-Q, due around August, will show how the expiring warrants split between exercise and lapse, and the updated share count.

(Sources: June 10, 2026 Form 8-K; Q1 2026 10-Q, Note 3 — SEC EDGAR.)

.THE LICENSE CLOCK — READ THIS PART TWICE
==================================================

.License 434's base term expires September 13, 2026 — just over two months from today.

At the June 2, 2026 annual shareholders meeting, CEO Rob Dunn stated the company's intent to apply for a one-year extension option. That is a stated intention. It is not a granted extension. Extensions require Israeli Ministry of Energy approval and a credible work plan. Israel has cooperated with Zion consistently for 26 years — and extensions are never guaranteed.

.As of July 7, 2026, no extension beyond September 13, 2026 is confirmed in any SEC filing, press release, or petroleum-registry document. Watch the filings — not the message boards — for the answer.

.THE READING ORDER — WHERE TO GO NEXT
==================================================


(Figure 3. The reference library — read top to bottom. Start with this post, read the risk article second; everything else builds on those two.)

The following pieces are listed in the order a new investor should read them:


THIS POST — Start here. You are reading it.
Is ZNOG a Good Investment? An Honest Risk Assessment. The most important document in the series. Going concern, dilution, license clock, failure scenario, success scenario. Read before investing.
From the Kick-Off Point to First Oil — What to Expect Once the Horizontal Drill Begins. The step-by-step process from rig-up to first oil in plain language. What each company update means. What to watch for.
Delek, Afek, and the Majors — Why the Big Players Confirmed the Oil and Left Anyway. Delek struck oil in 1995 at $17/barrel and walked away. Afek confirmed a 350-meter organic-rich section in the Golan and walked away. None left because hydrocarbons were absent.
The Other Wells Near MJ-1 — Who Drilled Them, What They Found. DEBORAH 02A, BELVOIR 01, ZEMAH #1 — every well within 30km confirmed hydrocarbons in the Triassic corridor. None produced commercially from a vertical wellbore.
Why Would Anyone Attack a Penny Stock With No Revenue? — The 2017-2023 Documented Record. The Seeking Alpha hit piece, the Financial Times, the SEC investigation, the lawsuits. All dismissed or closed with no findings. Documented from SEC filings and court records.


.FIVE QUESTIONS TO ANSWER BEFORE YOU BUY
==================================================


(Figure 4. The five questions every new investor must answer honestly before investing. If any answer is wrong, do not invest yet.)


Do I understand this company has zero revenue in 26 years? If no — read the 10-Q first.
Do I understand what going concern language means? If no — read the risk article first.
If I lose every dollar, does that change how I live? If yes — do not invest. Watch from the sidelines.
Am I investing money I genuinely do not need for anything else? If no — not retirement, not savings, not borrowed money — do not invest.
Have I read the actual SEC filings? Not just forum posts and price charts. The actual 10-Q.


Read the Q1 2026 10-Q for yourself on SEC EDGAR:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001131312/000143774926015655/znog20260331_10q.htm

.THE BOTTOM LINE
==================================================

This is a real company drilling in real ground with a real geological case supported by real independent assessments. It is not a scam. It is not an affinity fraud. It is a legal, fully disclosed, SEC-reporting speculative investment in an oil exploration company that has never produced commercially.

The upside is real. The downside is real. The risk is documented in the company's own quarterly filings.

.Do not put your retirement savings in it. Do not put your children's college fund in it. Do not put money in it that you need.

If after reading everything above you still want to invest — size it as a speculation. A small position in something that could go to zero or could multiply. Not your financial foundation. Never that.

.The drill bit is speaking now. The answer arrives on the rock's schedule, not ours.

This is my opinion and research only, re-verified against SEC filings as of July 7, 2026. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Every claim is sourced from a public SEC filing or documented public record. Do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. Only invest what you can afford to lose completely.

By Grace Alone Go I

You said "Zion had 1,183,777,512 shares outstanding as of May 5, 2026 (the Q1 10-Q cover)."

According to OTCMarkets.com, ZNOG had 1,188,684,525 shares outstanding on Jun 23, 2026.

https://archive.ph/jt3X3

https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/ZNOG/security

The 350 Meters Were Real, The Oil Wasn't


(Figure 1. The two tracks of the Golan story, 2013–2020: what was said publicly, above the line, and what was filed with the SEC, below it.)

A Genie Energy case study in how to read an exploration headline — by Ethan

ZNOG

READ THIS FIRST — NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE: This is an independent educational analysis — a factual reconstruction drawn from public SEC filings (Genie Energy Ltd., CIK 1528356), company press releases, court and planning records, contemporaneous news coverage, and peer-reviewed research. It is NOT a forecast, NOT a recommendation, and NOT investment advice concerning any security. The author is a long-term ZNOG shareholder; Genie Energy (GNE) is discussed solely as a regional case study. Nothing herein confirms anything any company has not itself filed or published. Oil and gas exploration involves substantial risk, including total loss of capital.

.THE QUESTION EVERYONE STOPPED ASKING
==================================================

If you followed Israeli oil in the autumn of 2015, you remember the headline. A company drilling in the southern Golan Heights had reportedly found an oil column three hundred and fifty meters thick — ten times a typical find — with “billions of barrels” in play. The company was backed by some of the most famous names in Western public life. Israeli television carried the chief geologist’s interview; wire services carried it around the world; and for a season, the Golan was the most exciting address in oil.

And then — nothing. No gusher, no scandal, no dramatic collapse. The story simply faded from view, the way stories do when neither triumph nor catastrophe arrives to end them. A decade later, most people who remember the headline could not tell you how the story ended, or whether it ended at all.

It ended. It ended in writing, in filings signed by the company’s own officers and in research published by the company’s own scientists. This article reconstructs that ending — what was actually said in 2015, what the rock actually contained, what the company told the SEC while the headlines were still warm, and why the venture’s quiet death teaches every reader of exploration headlines, ZNOG’s included, exactly how to hold the next exciting announcement.

One discipline note before we begin, in keeping with this library’s standard: every dated claim below traces to a primary document — an SEC filing, a company release, a court or planning record, or a peer-reviewed paper. Where the record is illustrative rather than measured, we say so.

.OCTOBER 7, 2015: WHAT WAS ACTUALLY SAID
==================================================

The announcement that lit the fuse came on Israel’s Channel 2 news. Dr. Yuval Bartov, chief geologist of Afek Oil and Gas — the Israeli subsidiary of US-listed Genie Energy — described a target stratum roughly 350 meters thick at a depth of about a kilometer, across three drilling sites. Media reports translated the find into potential “billions of barrels.”

.THE SENTENCE, READ CAREFULLY

But Bartov’s most-quoted sentence deserves a careful reading, because it turned out to be precisely, lawyer-grade accurate: “The important thing is to know the oil is in the rock, and that’s what we now know.” Note what that sentence does not say. It does not say the oil flows. It does not say the oil is recoverable. It says the oil is in the rock — and as we will see, that is a statement about a category of resource that the industry knows intimately, and that almost never makes the news under its true name.

.THE TIMING, DOCUMENTED

The timing around the announcement is part of the documented record. Four weeks earlier, on September 9, 2015, Genie announced that Lawrence Summers, Bill Richardson, Mary Landrieu, and James Woolsey had joined its Strategic Advisory Board — chaired by Michael Steinhardt, alongside existing members Richard Cheney, Rupert Murdoch, and Lord Jacob Rothschild. This article draws no conclusions about intent from that sequence; the dates are simply part of the record, and they explain both the extraordinary media wattage the announcement received and the durable conspiracy folklore that grew around the project afterward.

.THE HONEST RECORD

One more entry in the honest record: the announcement’s wave reached everywhere — including our own company. On the same day as the Channel 2 report, Zion Oil & Gas issued a release referencing the reported Golan discovery. Excitement about Israeli oil is an ecosystem, and in October 2015 the whole ecosystem moved together.


(Afek drilling operations in the southern Golan. Photo courtesy Afek Oil and Gas, via contemporaneous press coverage.)

.WHAT “OIL IN THE ROCK” ACTUALLY MEANS
==================================================

This is the heart of the story, and it requires ten minutes of geology. Readers who internalize this section will never read an exploration headline the same way again.

.SOURCE ROCK 101

Crude oil is not born as oil. It begins as organic matter — plankton, algae — settling into oxygen-poor mud on ancient sea floors. Buried and compacted over geological time, that organic matter becomes kerogen: solid, waxy hydrocarbon material locked inside otherwise ordinary rock. A rock rich in kerogen is called a source rock, and a source rock is exactly what its name says: a potential source of oil.

.It is not a pool of oil. Nothing in it flows.

.THE EARTH’S KITCHEN

To turn kerogen into oil, the earth must cook it. Burial depth brings heat; heat plus geological time “matures” the kerogen through a well-mapped sequence: immature kerogen first softens into bitumen — heavy, viscous, essentially immobile tar — and only with further heat does bitumen crack into light, mobile, flowable crude. Geologists call the temperature band where that final transformation happens the oil window. Too shallow and cool, and you have undercooked rock: kerogen and bitumen, oil that is technically “in the rock” but will not move. Too deep and hot, and the oil cracks onward into gas.

.OIL SHALE BY ANOTHER NAME

When a source rock rich in immature kerogen lies near the surface, the industry calls it oil shale — and the only way to get oil out of it is to do the earth’s cooking artificially, mining or heating the rock in place. That is expensive, energy-hungry, and environmentally fraught, which is why oil shale projects around the world have such a difficult history.

.THE GOLAN TARGET, NAMED

Now the key fact of the Golan story, established in the peer-reviewed literature: Afek’s target was the Ghareb and Mishash formations — Late Cretaceous, organic-rich chalk and marl, a Type II-S source rock. This is the same rock family as Jordan’s famous oil shales and the “oil shale member” of Israel’s Shfela basin. In plain terms: the Golan target was the oil-shale formation, under a different name and a basalt roof.

.THE AFEK THESIS: NATURE’S OVEN

That is not an accusation — it is the setup for understanding what Afek’s scientists were genuinely hoping. The company’s thesis, described in contemporaneous reporting, was that the Golan basin was special: that unusually high heat flow — the region is capped by young volcanic basalts — had done the cooking naturally, maturing the kerogen into liquid oil without anyone needing to build a retort. Nature’s oven, already run.

.THE KEROGEN PEOPLE

The people holding that thesis were the right people to hold it. When Israel Energy Initiatives’ Shfela oil-shale project — which planned to heat the very same rock artificially — was effectively killed by a planning committee in 2014, much of its scientific staff moved to Afek, including chief scientist Harold Vinegar, formerly Shell’s chief scientist and one of the world’s foremost authorities on in-situ conversion of oil shale. Afek was, in its scientific DNA, a kerogen company — and it went to the Golan to test whether nature had finished the job the Shfela project never got to start.

.READ THE SENTENCE AGAIN

Read Bartov’s sentence once more with all of this in mind: “The oil is in the rock.” For a Type II-S source rock, that sentence is true the moment you confirm rich kerogen and bitumen in your cores. The billion-dollar question was never whether oil was in the rock. It was how far the earth’s cooking had progressed — and that question would be answered not by press conference, but by well tests.


(Afek’s own published site infographic: the pre-drill plan — Bashan Volcanics cover, Adullam and Taqiya carbonates, and the Ghareb–Mishash “Target Layer.” Marked “illustration” by the company.)


(Figure 2. The same column, after the fact. Only starred depths are sourced measurements; the maturity verdict comes from research co-authored by Afek’s own scientists.)

.THE DRILLING RECORD
==================================================

Afek received its exclusive petroleum exploration license over roughly 400 square kilometers of the southern Golan in early 2013 (records cite the award in February 2013 and the license in April 2013). Environmental petitions — from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and others — took the project to Israel’s High Court, and drilling did not begin until December 30, 2014, on a first well planned to about 3,280 feet, roughly one kilometer. Israel’s Northern District planning committee had approved a ten-well, three-year exploratory program in July 2014.

The wells carried the license’s name, Ness (“miracle”): Ness 5 south of Katzrin, Ness 3 near the Bnei Yehuda industrial area, Ness 6 near Moshav Kanaf, Ness 10 north of the Sheikh-Ali Fault, and Nes 12 — which at about 150 meters struck not oil but high-quality water, a detail that will return at the end of this story. Through 2015 and 2016 the program drilled, cored, and ran well-flow tests; a two-year license extension was granted in November 2015 amid the post-announcement excitement.

Then, on November 16, 2017, Genie announced that the target zone of Ness 10 — the northern well drilled specifically to chase the play’s best remaining case — “does not contain commercially producible quantities of oil or natural gas.” Drilling was suspended, and Genie told shareholders it was sharpening its strategic focus on its retail energy business. The public story mostly ends there. The filed story had been ending for over a year already.


(Rig work at a Golan exploration site. Photo via contemporaneous press coverage of the Afek program.)

.THE SEC RECORD: WHAT SHAREHOLDERS WERE TOLD
==================================================

Genie Energy is a US-listed company, and its filings — signed under securities law — form the venture’s authoritative ledger. Two write-downs tell the story with a bluntness no press release ever matched.

.TWO WRITE-DOWNS

In the third quarter of 2016 — less than a year after the “billions of barrels” broadcast — Genie determined, based on analysis of the first five wells and market conditions, that it had no clear path to demonstrating even probable or possible reserves in the southern license area, citing substantial doubt regarding economic viability. It wrote off $41.0 million of capitalized exploration costs. In the fourth quarter of 2017, following the Ness 10 result, it wrote off the northern region as well: another $6.5 million.

.THE FINAL ENTRY

The final entry came in an 8-K dated December 21, 2020. A last planned test on the one completed well that had shown enough hydrocarbon evidence to justify hope was performed that month. The filing’s language is the epitaph of the entire venture:

.“no traces of light oil were found.”

Afek began shutting down operations, cleaning and sealing wells per regulatory requirements, with full cessation on or about December 31, 2020. The oil and gas segment moved to discontinued operations, and the Golan disappears from Genie’s EDGAR trail thereafter.

.THE ADJECTIVE THAT MATTERS

Note the adjective in that final sentence — light oil. Not “no oil.” No traces of light oil: the mobile, flowable crude that the oil window produces. It is the same distinction Bartov’s 2015 sentence carried, now read in the other direction. The oil was in the rock in 2015, and it was still in the rock in 2020 — as kerogen and bitumen, exactly where the earth’s unfinished cooking had left it.

.THE WRITE-DOWNS, PER SEC FILINGS (CIK 1528356)


Q3 2016 · Southern license area (first five wells) · “No clear path to demonstrating probable or possible reserves… substantial doubt regarding economic viability” (10-K FY2017) · $41.0M
Q4 2017 · Northern region (Ness 10) · Target zone “does not contain commercially producible quantities” (announcement Nov 16, 2017) · $6.5M

Total capitalized exploration written off: $47.5M

.THE POLITICS TEST
==================================================

No honest account of this story can ignore its political dimension, and no disciplined account can hide behind it. The Golan Heights is territory whose status is contested under international law; the license drew High Court petitions, sustained NGO campaigns, pointed questions from international media about the legality of resource extraction in occupied territory, and — remarkably — activist filings inside the SEC’s own system: a 2016 shareholder-proposal document arguing the project’s exposure under the Hague Regulations. The opposition was real, documented, and vigorous. Given the famous names on the advisory board, it has always been tempting to conclude that politics, not geology, killed the project.

.THE CONTROL EXPERIMENT

The record supplies a rare thing: a control experiment. Political friction peaked in 2013–2016 — and drilling proceeded anyway, well after well. Then, in March 2019, the United States formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights: for a US-listed company, the single greatest political de-risking the project could ever receive. If politics had been the binding constraint, this was the moment to accelerate.

What actually happened is in the filings. Nothing revived. Twenty-one months after recognition, Genie ran one last test, found no traces of light oil, and shut the venture down.

.Politics made the project slower, louder, and more expensive. The rock is what made it end.

This library’s standard is to document individual, provable facts and decline to assert group motives. Applied here, that standard cuts in an unexpected direction: it rescues the Golan story from the conspiracy shelf and returns it to the geology shelf, where its lessons are actually useful.

.THE SCIENCE POST-MORTEM — WRITTEN BY AFEK’S OWN TEAM
==================================================

Here is the remarkable coda. The definitive scientific answer to the 350-meter question was published in 2020 in Marine and Petroleum Geology — and its author list includes Harold Vinegar, credited with conceptualizing “the goals and the reasons for drilling in the Shfela and Golan basins,” and Yuval Bartov himself. The paper thanks the companies for releasing the research. The people who made the announcement also published its post-mortem.

.Which is, whatever else one says about this venture, scientific integrity of a high order.

.THE FINDING

The finding: across the ~350-meter organic-rich section in the Golan basin, thermal maturity increases with depth from an early maturation state down to the peak of bitumen generation. Research cores tell the same story — an early-mature sample from 1,051 meters, with the deepest studied material from about 1,290 meters reaching peak bitumen. Bitumen: the heavy, viscous, immobile middle stage of the earth’s kitchen.

.The light-oil window — the final transformation that makes crude flow — was never reached.

.So the famous 350 meters was real. The organic richness was real.

The natural maturation thesis was even partially real: nature had indeed started the oven. It simply never finished. Bartov’s 2015 sentence and Genie’s 2020 filing turn out to be the same sentence spoken eight years apart — the oil is in the rock; no traces of light oil — both true, both precise, and between them the entire distance between a headline and a barrel.


(Figure 3. The four gates between a geological headline and a commercial discovery — and where the Golan story stopped.)

.THE WATER FOOTNOTE
==================================================

Every story deserves its grace note, and the Golan venture’s is genuinely lovely. The one undisputed, producing discovery of the entire program came from Nes 12 — the well that hit high-quality water at about 150 meters. Afek gave the National Water Authority access to the well, and in 2016, during a sustained regional drought, the Mei Golan agricultural cooperative hired Afek — the drilling expertise was real, whatever the rock withheld — to develop a water production well for Golan farmers.

.They went looking for oil. They left behind water.

On this forum, of all places, that ending needs no further commentary.

.WHAT THIS TEACHES ZNOG READERS
==================================================

This library does not tell the Golan story to gloat over another company’s failure — Afek drilled real wells, published its own post-mortem, and honored its regulatory obligations on the way out. We tell it because it is the cleanest teaching case in our region for four disciplines every exploration investor needs.

.LESSON ONE — THE FOUR GATES

First: oil in the rock, recoverable oil, and commercial oil are three different things, separated by gates that each say no independently. Thickness headlines live at the first gate. Payouts live at the last.

.The Golan cleared gate one magnificently and died at gate two.

When you read any resource announcement — anyone’s — locate which gate the sentence is actually describing.

.LESSON TWO — NEIGHBORHOOD ? EQUIVALENCE

Second: geological neighborhood is not geological equivalence. On a regional map, the Syrian fields along the Palmyride trend, the Golan basin, and Zion’s Megiddo-Jezreel license can look like one connected oil province. They are three different geological stories: the Syrian fields are their own proven system; the Golan play was a shallow Cretaceous source rock under basalt, betting on natural maturation; Zion’s Megiddo-Jezreel program targets deeper, older objectives with a different thesis entirely.

.The Golan’s failure proves nothing about Zion — and, with equal force, regional success stories prove nothing for it. Each play answers only to its own rock.

.LESSON THREE — EXACT WORDS MATTER

Third: exact words matter. “The oil is in the rock.” “No traces of light oil.” “Does not contain commercially producible quantities.” Companies choose these words with counsel in the room. The discipline of reading the exact sentence — rather than the headline built on top of it — is the single highest-return habit an investor in this sector can form.

.LESSON FOUR — THE FILINGS ARE THE RECORD

Fourth: the filings are the record. Press releases fade, television interviews are forgotten, but 10-Ks and 8-Ks are permanent, signed, and searchable. Every decisive fact in this article came from EDGAR or peer review — which is exactly why this library verifies against primary sources before publishing anything, about any company, in any direction.

.THE HONEST MIRROR

And the honest mirror, because our standard requires it: these same four disciplines apply to hopeful stories, ZNOG’s included. The Garb estimates are professional assessments of recoverable volumes if a discovery is made — gate-two-and-three numbers, contingent on gate two opening. MJ-02 is the current test of that gate. We hold our own story to the standard this article applies to Genie’s, or the standard is worth nothing.

.SOURCES
==================================================

Genie Energy Ltd., Form 10-K for FY2017 (filed March 2018), SEC CIK 1528356 — Q3 2016 and Q4 2017 exploration write-downs and stated bases. · Genie Energy Ltd., Form 8-K, December 21, 2020 — final well test, shutdown, discontinued operations. · Genie Energy press release, September 9, 2015 — Strategic Advisory Board appointments. · Genie/Afek announcement, November 16, 2017 — Ness 10 result and suspension. · Afek/PRNewswire, September 19, 2016 — Nes 12 water and Mei Golan work. · Energy Voice, February 2015 — spud and planned first-well depth. · Times of Israel and Globes coverage, October 2015 — announcement and contemporaneous caution. · HLRN/Haaretz reporting — license, legal challenges, geological theory. · Shareholder proposal filing (PX14A6G), April 2016 — international-law objections on EDGAR. · Rosenberg, Reznik, Vinegar, Feinstein, Bartov et al., Marine and Petroleum Geology (2020) — Type II-S maturation across the ~350 m Golan section; peak bitumen generation. · Organic-rich carbonates core study, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering (2020) — core depths 1,051–1,290 m. · Afek Oil and Gas public site infographic (English) — formation sequence and site plan, marked “illustration” by the company. · Wikipedia, “Genie Energy,” for well names and license chronology, cross-checked against the above.

By Grace Alone Go I

Thank you JRyan! Awesome report!

DEADLINE DAY 179 MILLION WARRANTS AND THE TRAP


(A Zion well site on the floor of the Jezreel Valley.)

"Down 10% on Deadline Day: 179 Million Warrants and the Trap That Springs Only If Zion Wins" — what expired June 30, and the tax trap buried underneath it.
First published July 1, 2026 on the shareholder record · By Ethan

ZNOG

READ THIS FIRST — NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE: This is a factual summary of public SEC filings — not a forecast, not a recommendation, and not investment advice. Nothing here confirms that the June 30 warrants were exercised, extended, or lapsed; that is not yet on the record and will be settled only by a future Zion filing. Every figure is sourced to Zion's own filings, and where the public record stops, so do we.

.[Update, July 5, 2026: a fresh check of EDGAR shows Zion's most recent filing remains the June 10 8-K — nothing has been filed since that resolves the warrants. The question below is still open. ZNOG has since closed at $0.40 on July 2.]

June 30, 2026 was a deadline. Three series of Zion Oil & Gas warrants — all exercisable at twenty-five cents — reached their expiration date. On the same day, ZNOG closed at $0.45, down 9.73%. This piece lays out exactly what expired, what it would mean if those warrants were exercised, and a tax problem buried in Zion's own filings that most shareholders have never heard of — one that does its worst damage in the very scenario every long is praying for. Every figure below is drawn from Zion's SEC filings. None of it is investment advice, and where the public record stops, so do we.

.1. WHAT EXPIRED ON JUNE 30
==================================================

Zion's first-quarter 2026 Form 10-Q sets it out plainly. In Note 3, the warrant rollforward lists three series carrying an expiration date of June 30, 2026, each exercisable at $0.25:



ZNWAS — 145,180,117 warrants @ $0.25 — expired June 30, 2026
ZNWAU — 19,147,462 warrants @ $0.25 — expired June 30, 2026
ZNWBB — 15,000,000 warrants @ $0.25 — expired June 30, 2026
Total that reached expiry — 179,327,579 warrants


The first two were issued on January 15, 2026, each, in the filing's exact words, to "one participant." ZNWBB is an older series. If every one of these warrants were exercised at $0.25, .Zion would take in roughly $44.8 million in cash and issue about 179.3 million new shares. Note that AI-generated summaries circulating on this topic have tended to count only the two January series and miss ZNWBB; the full figure that reached expiry is the larger one.

.2. THE DILUTION, IF IT HAPPENED
==================================================



Zion had 1,183,777,512 shares outstanding as of May 5, 2026 (the Q1 10-Q cover). Full exercise of all 179.3 million warrants would lift that to roughly 1.363 billion — .about 15% more shares than existed before the deadline. That is a ceiling, not a certainty. And "in the money" does not mean "exercised": another Zion series, ZNWBA, was also priced at $0.25 and expired March 31, 2026 with only 336,490 of its 1,177,950 warrants exercised — the rest simply lapsed. .So the honest range runs from zero dilution to about 15%, and we will not know where it landed until Zion discloses it.

.3. THE DAY ON THE TAPE
==================================================

ZNOG closed June 30 at $0.4500, down $0.0485 on the session — a drop of 9.73% — and the decline steepened into the final hour of trading.


(ZNOG intraday price, June 30, 2026 — shareholder brokerage capture.)



Why did it fall? .We don't know, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What the record supports: the drop came on volume of roughly 4.55 million shares — below the stock's recent average — which points more toward thin liquidity and a motivated seller than a broad, heavy-volume flush. Crude oil was also soft on the day. And no Zion filing or press release hit the wire on June 30 to explain the move. A reader can weigh several candidates: ordinary profit-taking after a volatile stretch (as of June 30 the stock had fallen in nine of its last ten sessions and sat well off its $0.70 fifty-two-week high), macro pressure on oil, thin-market mechanics, and — yes — anticipation of warrant dilution. .That last one is a candidate, not a conclusion. We cannot confirm a single large late-day trade, and we will not assign a cause. .Anyone who tells you they know why a thinly traded microcap moved 10% on a given afternoon is guessing.

.4. "ONE PARTICIPANT" — AND WHY WE WON'T GUESS
==================================================

The filings say the ZNWAS and ZNWAU warrants each went to "one participant." That is the entire extent of what the public record discloses. We do not know whether it is a single entity behind both, the 5%-plus holder who surfaced in a 2019 Schedule 13G, a different large holder, or someone entirely new. .We will not name, estimate, or speculate about who holds these warrants or what they intend to do with them. .When the record says "one participant," this record says "one participant," and nothing more.

.5. THE SUCCESS TAX
==================================================

.Here is the part that lives in Zion's tax footnote and almost nowhere else. At December 31, 2025, Zion reported approximately $303.8 million in U.S. federal net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards. On paper that reads like a buried asset. In practice it is carried at almost nothing: the related deferred tax asset is offset by a large valuation allowance, because a company that has never earned U.S. taxable income cannot yet use a loss carryforward. The NOL only becomes valuable if Zion one day earns real income to shelter.



.Now the trap. Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code limit how much of an NOL a company may use each year after an "ownership change." Zion spells this out in its own 10-K: it "continuously monitors all shareholders that might reach a 5% ownership," it records that a 5%-plus holder first surfaced through a 2019 13G, and it states that, as of that filing, no ownership change had been triggered.



An ownership change, in the statute's terms, is a rise of more than 50 percentage points in the combined stake of 5%-plus shareholders over a rolling three-year period. The annual cap that follows is, roughly, the company's equity value at the change date multiplied by a low IRS rate (3.65% in May 2026). Run that against Zion's numbers illustratively — an equity value near $48 million — and the yearly usable slice comes to something on the order of $1.8 million against a $303.8 million carryforward. .At that pace the bulk of it could never be used, and older NOLs carry twenty-year expirations on top. Here is the irony worth sitting with: the same warrant exercises shareholders would cheer — cash into the company, a large holder's conviction — are exactly the kind of ownership shift that eats into the 50-point budget. .The NOL is worth the most in the moment of success, and Section 382 can strand it in that very moment. A success tax. To be clear: no ownership change has been triggered as of Zion's last filing, and we do not know that the June 30 warrants were exercised at all. This is a risk to understand, not an event to mourn.

.6. A U.S. ATTRIBUTE ON ISRAELI OIL
==================================================

One more sober note. That $303.8 million NOL is a U.S. federal tax attribute. If Zion ever produces commercially, the income would arise in Israel — under Israeli taxation, the Sheshinski levy, and Israeli corporate tax — inside the Megiddo-Jezreel license. Whether, and how cleanly, a U.S. NOL would shelter Israeli-sourced production income at the U.S. parent level is its own separate question of international tax mechanics, and not one to wave away. The point is not that the NOL is worthless; .it is that its real-world value in a discovery scenario is less automatic than a headline number suggests — before Section 382 is even in the room.

.7. WHAT WE DON'T KNOW YET — AND WHEN WE WILL
==================================================

As of July 5, nothing has hit EDGAR to confirm what happened to the 179.3 million warrants — verified against Zion's EDGAR filing index the morning this was posted. There are two paths, each with its own signal. .If the warrants were extended, that is a public act — Zion has announced unit- and warrant-program extensions before, by press release and Form 8-K, sometimes right at the deadline; expect that within days if it happened. .If a reporting person exercised, the signal depends on who they are: a Section 16 insider files a Form 4 within two business days, while a 5%-plus holder amends a Schedule 13D or 13G on a slower clock. The complete, definitive picture — how many of the 179.3 million were exercised versus lapsed, and the resulting share count — .arrives with Zion's second-quarter 2026 Form 10-Q, expected around mid-August; its warrant rollforward will settle it. Until then, .anyone claiming to know what happened on June 30 is ahead of the record.

.8. BOTTOM LINE
==================================================

On June 30 a deadline passed and a number moved. What it means depends on filings not yet written. We'll track them, source by source, and update when Zion tells us — not before.

By Grace Alone Go I

Excellent work JRyan!

THE MANASSEH REPORT EDITION II THE ROAD AHEAD



"The Road Ahead — Three Stages Between Here and an Answer"
Edition II · July 2026 · By Ethan · An independent shareholder record

ZNOG

READ THIS FIRST — NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE: This report is a factual and educational summary compiled from Zion Oil & Gas SEC filings, company press releases, zionoil.com operational updates, public market-quote sources, and the general petroleum-engineering literature. It is not a forecast, recommendation, or investment advice, and the author is not a financial advisor. Nothing herein confirms any operational milestone, well result, completion design, or price outcome that has not been publicly filed or announced by the company. Illustrative material is labeled as such throughout.

.WHERE THINGS STAND
==================================================

The last word from the company remains the June 10, 2026 press release — simultaneously filed as an 8-K — announcing that MJ-02 sidetrack field operations had commenced: the well re-entered, the temporary plug being drilled out, with wellbore conditioning and the planned horizontal sidetrack still ahead. The rig, recertified and recommissioned, now works under the name JB-1, in honor of founder John M. Brown. .That places operations at Stage 1 of the six-stage road — and as of this writing, July 5, no further operational update has been issued. Roughly three and a half weeks of quiet.

Quiet is not news, and this report will not pretend it is. What the quiet does give us is time — time to walk, carefully and in order, through the five stages that remain between today's plug drill-out and the only event that answers the question every shareholder carries: a flow test. That walk is this edition.


(Figure 1 — The six-stage road from plug drill-out to flow test. Stage labels per the six-stage sequence in Zion's June 10, 2026 press release. Only Stage 1 is confirmed by a primary source as of July 5, 2026.)

Three other clocks are running in the background, all facts, none resolved:

The warrants. On June 30, three warrant series — ZNWAS (145,180,117), ZNWAU (19,147,462), and ZNWBB (15,000,000), together 179,327,579 warrants, all at a $0.25 strike — reached their expiration date. .Whether they were exercised, extended, or lapsed is not confirmed in any filing as of this writing. The next 10-Q share count, or any 8-K or prospectus supplement in between, will tell us. Until then it is an open question, and we treat it as one.
The license. License 434 ("Megiddo Valleys") is valid through September 13, 2026. Management stated at the June 2 annual meeting its intent to exercise the first of four contractual one-year extension options; the application window closes on or about August 13, 2026. .No extension appears in any primary source yet. This is the next hard calendar milestone.
The tape. ZNOG last closed at $0.40, down 6.76% on the session (Thursday, July 2 — the final session before the Independence Day weekend). We note the price as observed fact and assign no cause.



(ZNOG's July 2, 2026 session — an early slide to the $0.39s, then a flat afternoon pinned at $0.40 into the close. Observed market data; no cause assigned.)

Now, the road ahead.

.SECTION 2 — STAYING IN THE ZONE: HOW YOU STEER A DRILL BIT TWO MILES DOWN
(Covers Stages 2-4: wellbore conditioning, sidetrack kickoff, lateral drilling)
==================================================

Here is the problem in one sentence: the drilling team must guide a bit that is roughly five kilometers away from them, by remote measurement alone, out of a vertical hole and into a horizontal path that stays inside a rock layer that may be only meters thick — and keep it there for the length of the lateral.


(The shape of the problem — vertical bore, curve, and steered lateral. AI-generated illustration with generic American stratigraphy; not Zion's geology or geometry — MJ-02's target lies deeper than the 2 miles shown.)

Everything about Stages 2 through 4 is in service of that sentence.

.CONDITIONING (STAGE 2) is the unglamorous prerequisite. Before anything can be steered, the existing wellbore below the re-entry point must be circulated clean, its casing verified, and the mud system brought to the weight and properties the sidetrack plan calls for. The June 10 release named this step explicitly as what follows the plug drill-out. It generates no headlines, and skipping it generates disasters.

.THE KICKOFF (STAGE 3) is where MJ-02 stops being a vertical well. The standard tool is a whipstock — a long steel wedge set inside the casing at the chosen kickoff depth. A mill run against the whipstock's face cuts a window through the casing wall, and the new bore exits sideways through that window, leaving the original deeper hole plugged and abandoned below. From the window, the build section begins: the bit gains angle at a planned rate (the "build rate," conventionally measured in degrees per hundred feet — the schematic below is illustrative, since Zion has not published the sidetrack's geometry) until the bore turns from vertical to horizontal. Drillers call the finished arc "the curve," and the moment the bore reaches the target layer at horizontal is called "landing."

This, incidentally, is the quiet answer to a question long asked: why sidetrack MJ-02 rather than re-use MJ-01, twenty feet away? MJ-01's 7-inch casing, tied back to surface, constrained the length and quality of any horizontal leg it could host. MJ-02's architecture gives the curve and lateral room to be done properly. The two wells remain one continuous story: MJ-01 established that hydrocarbons are present in the Triassic; MJ-02 exists to test whether a properly engineered horizontal can make them flow.

.THE LATERAL (STAGE 4) is where geosteering earns its name. Just behind the bit rides a package of instruments — MWD (measurement while drilling) for the bore's inclination and azimuth, and LWD (logging while drilling) sensors, most importantly gamma ray, which reads the natural radioactivity of the rock the bit is currently in. The readings travel to surface not by wire but by mud-pulse telemetry — pressure pulses sent up through the drilling mud itself, decoded at surface in near-real time. The steering itself is done either with a bent mud motor — oriented, then slid in the desired direction — or with a rotary steerable system (RSS), a tool whose pads push against the borehole wall to nudge the bit's path while the whole string keeps rotating; RSS is the modern standard for long laterals because it steers continuously without stopping rotation.


(A "push-the-bit" rotary steerable tool — actuation pads press against the borehole wall to steer while drilling. AI-generated illustration, for education.)

The geosteering team compares the incoming gamma-ray signature against the expected signature of the target layer, built from MJ-01 and MJ-02's own vertical logs and the 3D seismic. Rock layers are not perfectly flat — they dip, roll, and fault — so the lateral is not drilled blind along a straight line; it is steered, nudged up or down in small corrections, to follow the layer wherever it actually goes. When the gamma signature drifts toward that of the rock above or below the target, the team adjusts before the bore exits the zone. The fraction of the lateral that stays inside the target — "in-zone percentage" — is one of the quietest but most consequential numbers in horizontal drilling, because rock outside the zone contributes little or nothing when the well flows.


(AI-generated illustration of what a geosteering workstation display looks like — the red path is the steered lateral following the target band, with gamma-ray and resistivity tracks at left. This is NOT actual geosteering software, NOT Zion data, and its incidental text labels are AI artifacts — it conveys the concept only.)


(Figure 2 — Whipstock, curve, and steered lateral. Schematic, not to scale; depths, angles and lateral length are illustrative — Zion has not published MJ-02 sidetrack geometry.)

What would we expect to hear during these stages, based on how Zion has communicated to date? Company updates have marked stage transitions, not daily footage. A release confirming the kickoff — the moment MJ-02 becomes a horizontal well in fact rather than in plan — would be the natural next milestone. We do not know when. Nobody outside the company does.

.SECTION 3 — ACID, NOT SAND: WHY A MOHILLA COMPLETION WON'T LOOK LIKE A TEXAS FRAC
(Covers Stage 5: liner and completion)
==================================================

A drilled lateral is a hole, not a well. Stage 5 — running a liner into the lateral and completing it — is what turns rock access into a flow path. And here is where an assumption quietly imported from a decade of American shale headlines needs unpacking, because it does not transfer cleanly to the Jezreel Valley.

The image most investors carry of "completing a horizontal well" is the Texas one: massive proppant fracturing, where fluid is pumped above the rock's fracture pressure and millions of pounds of sand are carried into the cracks to hold them open mechanically. That method rules the Bakken, the Permian, and the Eagle Ford, because shale and tight siliceous rock will not stay open on their own — release the pressure without sand in the crack, and the crack closes.

Zion's deep target is different rock. The Triassic Mohilla is a carbonate — and carbonate's defining chemical property, for a completion engineer, is that it dissolves in acid. That one fact changes the entire menu:

Matrix acidizing pumps acid below fracture pressure. The acid does not crack the rock; it eats selective pathways — "wormholes" — through the rock immediately around the wellbore, dissolving drilling damage and opening natural pores and fissures. It is the gentlest tool in the box and a routine first step in carbonate reservoirs worldwide.
Acid fracturing pumps acid above fracture pressure. The pressure opens a fracture, and the acid etches its faces unevenly before the fracture closes. Because the etched faces no longer fit together, flow channels remain open — no sand required. The rock's own chemistry does the propping. This tool exists only for carbonates.
Proppant fracturing remains available for carbonate-rich rock too — parts of the Eagle Ford, itself a carbonate-rich marl, are propped — but it is a choice among several in carbonate, not the only door, as it is in shale.


Two disciplines to state plainly. First: Zion has not publicly specified the MJ-02 completion design. Nothing above predicts what the company will pump; it maps the toolbox the rock makes available. When a completion is announced, this section is the reader's translation key. Second: the Eagle Ford comparison applies to play type and development method — horizontal laterals through low-permeability carbonate-rich rock targeting the condensate window — and not to a one-for-one copy of Texas completion recipes.


(Two ways to complete a horizontal well — sand-propped fractures, left, versus acid-created wormholes in carbonate, right. AI-generated illustration of general methods; Zion has not specified the MJ-02 completion design, and nothing here predicts it.)


(Figure 3 — The completion toolbox. General industry methods for reference; not a prediction of what will be used at MJ-02.)

One piece of company history is worth recalling here: during the MJ-01 recompletion program, the company reported perforation and stimulation operations followed by flowback, .with gas reaching the surface (May 2025 announcement). Whatever MJ-02's design turns out to be, Zion has now run completion-type operations on this pad, with this crew lineage, in this rock family — experience that did not exist at MJ-01's first completion attempt in 2017-18.

.SECTION 4 — THE ONLY NUMBER THAT MATTERS: HOW A FLOW TEST ACTUALLY WORKS
(Covers Stage 6: the flow test)
==================================================

Every stage before this one produces engineering facts. Stage 6 produces the economic fact. A flow test is the controlled experiment that asks the reservoir a single question: at what rate, and at what pressure, will you deliver hydrocarbons to surface — and will you keep doing it?

The mechanics, simplified: the well is opened to flow through a choke — a calibrated orifice at surface, sized in sixty-fourths of an inch — which holds the flow to a deliberate, measured rate. Downhole gauges record pressure. During the flow period, rate is measured while bottom-hole pressure draws down. Then comes the step that looks like nothing and means everything: the well is shut in, and engineers watch the pressure build back up. The shape of that buildup curve is the reservoir speaking — from it, engineers derive permeability, near-wellbore damage ("skin"), and true reservoir pressure. A third phase, extended flow, asks the durability question: does the rate hold, or does it decline, and how fast?


(The machinery of a drill-stem test — downhole packer, tester valve and gauges, surface choke manifold and separator. AI-generated generic illustration: note it depicts a sandstone reservoir; Zion's Mohilla target is carbonate.)


(Figure 4 — Flow period, shut-in buildup, extended flow. Entirely illustrative curves — not data, not a forecast, and not a representation of any Zion well.)

Now the discipline. The number that makes headlines is the initial production rate — the first, highest reading, taken when the reservoir is fresh and the near-wellbore region fully charged. The number that makes a company is the sustained rate months later. They are not the same number, and the gap between them is where retail investors get hurt.

We do not need to reach to Texas for the lesson; it sits thirty kilometers away. Meged-5 — the Givot Olam well in the same Triassic Mohilla family, the closest analogue Zion has — produced light oil at rates reported around 800 barrels per day in its celebrated 2011 period. The rate roughly halved as the decade wore on, and by around 2022 the well had gone inactive; the operator's trailing revenue today is zero, even as stale language elsewhere still describes production in the present tense. One documented well, one complete arc: headline rate, decline, silence. It is the single most instructive chart in Zion's neighborhood, and it is why this report will treat any future initial rate — however joyful the day — as the beginning of the answer, not the answer.

There is one more technical wrinkle specific to what management believes this reservoir holds. The company characterized the MJ-01 fluid at the annual meeting as a gas-condensate accumulation. Gas-condensate reservoirs carry a known engineering phenomenon worth having in vocabulary before any test: when bottom-hole pressure falls below the fluid's dew point, liquid condensate can drop out of the gas inside the rock near the wellbore — a "condensate bank" — which can choke the flow of gas past it and cause rates to fall faster than the reservoir's true capacity would suggest. Managing drawdown to control banking is a core reason gas-condensate flow tests are run carefully, on conservative chokes, rather than opened wide for a spectacular number. .If a future test looks "slow and careful," that may be the engineering working exactly as intended. (General reservoir-engineering literature; stated here as education, not as a description of any Zion test plan.)

And the legal stake: under Israel's Petroleum Law, a discovery in commercial quantities is what entitles a licensee to convert to a long-term production lease. The flow test is not just the technical verdict — it is the event with the power to transform what License 434 is.

.WHAT TO WATCH
==================================================

In rough calendar order:

Any operational press release — the next one likely marks a stage transition; the kickoff announcement would be the moment MJ-02 becomes a horizontal well in fact.
~August 13, 2026 — the License 434 extension application window closes. The application, and later the extension itself, should each surface in primary sources.
The next 10-Q (or any interim 8-K / prospectus supplement) — resolves the June 30 warrant question: exercised, extended, or lapsed, and what the share count says.
September 13, 2026 — current license expiry, the date the extension exists to move.


Five stages remain. This edition is the map; the company's releases will be the odometer. We will read each one against primary sources, as always, and publish what the record supports — no more, no less.

By Grace Alone Go I

No demand for the stock. No support at all. Pretty much just a lot of sales. We need positive information from the company to get the buyers interested again.

Until then the downwards pressure will continue.

Once again, we're in a holding pattern.

What happened

<< the prophecy of the oil of Israel will be fulfilled. >>

Personally, I think that John Brown's interpretations of specific verses in the Bible are distorted and incorrect.

Here is an SEC filing that contains his interpretations.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1131312/000113131206000077/vision.htm

For example, Mr. Brown (incorrectly) translates the Hebrew word for plant-derived oils (like olive oil) or fat (shemen)(H8081) to crude oil. There is no evidence for that at all. That word shows up about 193 times in the Old Testament, and it always means the same thing.

Are you talking about Deuteronomy 33:13-16?

The one the whole company is based on. Did you ever get the introductory packet? If not, order it from zion. It's available free on their website.

>

Thanks for the response. Which prophecy?

Faith that: That the prophecy of the oil of Israel will be fulfilled.

The very thing we've been working towards all these years.

Have to be honest, never thought we'd see $.42 or lower again.

Down 60% since our new 5 year high at $.69. How come it always goes down faster then when it goes up? Was so close to showing a profit for the first time in 20 years.

Just a little bit more would have made it more fun. Just to see my ZNOG account go green one time

Anybody else having Deja Vu? This is when it's really tough to remain in faith! 🙏

The stock price action is bringing back so many bad memories from the past. Like someone already knows something that we should know. We're always the the last ones to know. I do not believe I can take another dry well experience. Would love to hear that we have had more gas encounters to the surface, but I do not believe they will be telling us anything for a while.

We may have to experience more pain before Zion finally get's around to letting us know what's going on at the site.

I think we are probably still in Phase Two
Drill just under 985 meters of 8 1/2 inch deviated open hole with cementing.
ASM BASED DATES: June 17 - July 01 (2 weeks)
NEW June 10 PR DATES: June 25 – July 09 (2 weeks)

Phase Two will finish up within the next 8 days and then we will be free to drill through the pay zones.

Phase Three: Phase Three should be starting within next 8 days.
Drill 915 meters of 6 inch open hole horizontally through what geologists believe are the pay zones with cementing.
ASM BASED DATES: July 02 - July 16 (2 weeks)
NEW June 10 PR DATES: July 10 – July 24 (2 weeks)

Hey Zion, even the dogs get the scraps from the master's table.

Please update us as soon as you can and Thank You!

Thanks for another astute analysis ...

Thanks JRyan, looking great so far!

Warrants day, 10% drop.

Hmm

Well the last thing I want is to drive traffic to iHub.

Agreed

When we look at the June 10, 2026, Press Release, it appears we have now commenced Phase Two of a 4 Phase operation. The June 10th press release was primarily issued to "START THE CLOCK" and to notify us that all necessary equipment was on-site. This interpretation of our Phased Schedule pushes us out 8 days.
Still believe a discovery PR could come any time in the last three weeks of July.

Press Release: Zion Oil & Gas Announces Commencement of MJ-02 Sidetrack Operations - June 10, 2026

Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (OTC: ZNOG) is pleased to announce that field operations have commenced for the planned sidetrack phase of the Megiddo-Jezreel #2 well in Israel. As expected, Zion has re-entered the well and is currently in the process of drilling out the temporary plug. Following this step, the team will condition the wellbore downhole and proceed with the planned horizontal sidetrack drilling.

Phase One: Phase One should be completed by now.
Clean out MJ02 and install Whipstock.
ASM BASED DATES: June 2 - June 16 (2 weeks)
NEW June 10 PR DATES: June 10 - June 24


Press Release: Zion Oil & Gas Announces Commencement of MJ-02 Sidetrack Operations - June 10, 2026 (cont.)

We are thankful to report that this next phase of work is now underway,” said Zion Oil & Gas Chairman/CEO Robert Dunn. “Our team has safely re-entered the well, and we are moving carefully through the required steps that prepare us for the planned sidetrack drilling. We remain focused on executing the approved work plan safely, efficiently, and with gratitude for the opportunity before us.

Phase Two: Phase Two should be in progress or at least starting.
Drill just under 1000 meters of 8 1/2 inch deviated open hole with cementing.
ASM BASED DATES: June 17 - July 01 (2 weeks)
NEW June 10 PR DATES: June 25 – July 09 (2 weeks)

Phase Three: Phase Three should be starting in 2 weeks or less.
Drill just over 900 meters of 6 inch open hole horizontally through what geologists believe are the pay zones with cementing.
ASM BASED DATES: July 02 - July 16 (2 weeks)
NEW June 10 PR DATES: July 10 – July 24 (2 weeks)

Phase Two and Three have the wild card that as of the ASM, they were waiting for directional equipment and materials to come off a boat and be transported to site.
UPDATE: Considering the June 10 Press Release, we can assume that the directional equipment and materials came off the boat and have been transported to the site.

Zion Oil & Gas Update: May 15, 2026

The directional equipment is currently scheduled to arrive in Israel the first week of June. Once that equipment is in place and ready for operations, our planned horizontal drilling is expected to commence in short order as conditions and logistics allow.”


Phase Four:
Stimulate and Flow test 10 possible zones said to take 10 days.
ASM BASED DATES: July 11 - July 25 (2 weeks)
NEW June 10 PR DATES: July 25 - Aug 08 (2 weeks)

Phase Four requires some contracts yet to be agreed upon so it’s a wild card depending on when the contractors are available and if they want to work in Israel due to ongoing hostilities. This is where we tell how much we can produce and how much is believed to be in the reservoir(s).

PHASE FOUR IS NOT REQUIRED TO ANNOUNCE A HYDROCARBON DISCOVERY.

Found this posted in another location. This is close to what we can expect with respect to a discovery announcement if Zion should discover gas/oil during the horizontal drilling. It is not required that it be stimulated and flowback tested first.

US Firm Murphy Oil Corporation Finds Oil Field off the Ivory Coast

As you listen, please notice that Murphy has yet to perform any stimulation or flowback testing to provide a size of the reservoir that they have discovered, yet they are able to announce confidently that they have a commercial discovery.

This would be equivalent to Zion announcing that they have a discovery after completing Phase Three mentioned in previous post and shown below. Size would not be included in this announcement but a P90, P50 and/or P10 could be included.

Phase one:
Clean out MJ02 and install Whipstock.
June 2 - June 16 (2 weeks)

Phase two:
Drill just over 1000 meters deviated 8 1/2 inch with cementing.
June 17 - July 01 (2 weeks)

Phase three:
Drill just over 900 meters horizontal through what geology believes are the pay zones with cementing.
July 02 - July 16 (2 weeks)

Phase Four:
Stimulate and Flowtest 10 possible zones said to take 10 days.
July 17 - July 29 (2 weeks)


I would estimate that we could hear something from Zion anywhere in the last three weeks of July. This is assuming everything is going smoothly at the site, the Directional equipment has arrived on-site from the boat, and we have horizontally drilled through actual pay zones.

We really need an Operational Update to provide a status as to where we are since the ASM and to bring us up to date with respect to contracting the stimulation and flowback testing to the well.

They did mention that they were waiting to start drilling before contracting for those services. They may be waiting to be sure they have something to test. I think it would be bullish to find out that they have contracted the stimulation and flowback testing services.

Gonna put out a bigger post but after going through the January 14th Operational Update and ASM Operational Update.

Summary:

Phase one:
Clean out MJ02 and install Whipstock.
June 2 - June 16 (2 weeks)

Phase two:
Drill just over 1000 meters deviated 8 1/2 inch with cementing.
June 17 - July 01 (2 weeks)

Phase three:
Drill just over 900 meters horizontal through what geology believes are the pay zones with cementing.
July 02 - July 16 (2 weeks)

Phase Four:
Stimulate and Flowtest 10 possible zones said to take 10 days.
July 17 - July 29 (2 weeks)

Phase Two and Three have the wild card that as of the ASM, they were waiting for directional equipment and materials to come off a boat and be transported to site.

Phase Four required some contracts yet to be agreed upon so its a wild card depending on when the contractors are available and if they want to work in Israel due to on going hostilities [the elephant wild card in the room].

The only way to address wild cards is if Zion gives an Operational Update.

Initially, transport will be "Shuttles" as mentioned by the CEO during the ASM. 😀

Look forward to your new offering. Very impressive.

I am working on a new hypothetical, I will share part of it.

Hey Zion,

My dream Operational Update would be that we are Horizontal Dilling with a picture of Flaring 🔥 at the site 😀.

Can you make that happen?

Signed Long Term Shareholder 🔥

IMHO, we are actively in PHASE 2 below, getting ready to begin PHASE 3 below. During the January 14 Operational Update, the COO gave a 2-week timeframe for PHASE 1 and PHASE 2 and reiterated that during the ASM.

It's been 3 weeks since the ASM when we were told we were starting drilling operations. We are probably getting the Well prepared for the horizontal drilling PHASE 3 below. PHASE 2 and PHASE 3 are the 2000 meters of drilling spoke of during the January 14 Operational Update.

It sure would be better if Zion would just provide an operational update rather than have to go through this exercise.

Whoever is watching the site, keep an eye out for flaring.

From the COO during the June 6th ASM. Blue Notes are mine.
What are we doing right now? We're rigging up over in MJ02, getting ready to open the well this week. There is a temporary plug and abandonment that we left off there in 2022, so we're going to clean that out. We've raised the substructure. Let's talk about what we're getting ready to do.
[PHASE 1 - Note: This is MJ02 Preparation]

So the remaining operations that we have for this year are pretty much commencing this week. We're going to plug and abandon MJ02 below the 2,700-meter mark.

We're going to run a whipstock. What is a whipstock? A whipstock is a plug that also acts as a wedge. It'll force the drill bit out the side of the casing.

So that is what we're going to use to open up a window that's going to allow for the deviated vertical directional drilling to start off, and that'll take us a couple of weeks to get all of that done. I do have the whipstock in country, which is good news.

So as soon as those directional tools arrive from the boat, we'll be able to get started on the directional side.

From there, we have just under 1,000 meters of 8 1/2-inch open hole. It's deviated, but primarily vertical drilling, which is going to get us down to the target zone depth. We'll have a casing and cementing operation once that's completed.
[PHASE 2 - Note: This is where the whipstock pushes the drill bit out the side of the MJ02 previously placed casing. This is a curved drilling effort starting at the original MJ02 vertical casing and ends where the horizontal drilling will begin.]

This will be followed by a little over 900 meters of horizontal drilling through the potential production zone, and that's with a six-inch open hole. We'll do a casing, and then part of the lower end completion is what's going to allow us to do the stimulation and flowback testing.
[PHASE 3 - Note: This is the horizontal drilling through the production zones.]

So all of that, the lower completion section is designed to minimize the equipment footprint, personnel, and cost, and still have a highly successful stimulation program. But we will cement the bottom section. We will tieback casing to surface. Probably will not cement the tieback casing in at this time. In case we need to make changes, we will be able to pull that casing out of the hole.
[PHASE 4 - Note: This is the 10 stages that need to be stimulated and flowback tested spoken about in the January 14 Operational Update. Each stage takes 24 to 36 hours, or at least 10 days of pure stimulation and flowback testing.]

So that's the drilling operation in a nutshell.

Once we're through the drilling and we have the lower section in place, then we'll begin a multi-stage stimulation and flowback program, which will take us probably through the end of the year.

Right now, everything is contracted, with the exception of the flowback and stimulation, and it's contract-- I've got everything in place. What we're waiting on is to lock in equipment dates. As soon as that gets locked in, then I'm subject to cancellation clauses, and that's the only reason why I haven't given them firm hard dates yet.

But we're looking late this summer that we should get that in. So as soon as we start the drilling operation, I will finalize the stimulation flowback and well testing contracts and get those put into place, and we're set through the completion of this operation. That's that.

You may be closer.

Re-watched ASM Operations portion. Mr. Ness stated the should be ready to start drilling the horizontal portion of the well after installation of the whipstock (pretty much a wedge to redirect drill out of wellbore) in 2 weeks from ASM.

It's been 3 weeks since the ASM. We did have to cement the deviation to stabilze. We could be horizontal drilling this week or next. If true, then they should be flaring off gases at the site if we are successful.

Figure 3 to 4 weeks from now.

sorry NOT my Opinion....i believe we hear something quickly.....1 to 3 weeks from now....will see

Remember in Jan- Mar, they did all the certification of the rig and set up over MJ 02 and then evacuated the site due to hostilities.

They got back on site in May/June and then held the ASM. It was after that they got back on-site to prep MJ02 for drilling. Mid-June (at best) restarted the clock.

We're still 1 to 2 months out as per the COO's statement during the January 14 update.

This is better then his statement made during the ASM, where he stated closer to late fall to the end of year

TtHIS ALMOST 6 MONTHS AGO.....hMMMMM.....imho.....THEY hit "all" TARGETS !!!!! that's "oil"......imho news is "eminent" !!!!!!!!!!! many...many dollars ARE coming ...............SHARE PRICE THAT IS

The first half, pretty much vertical, then straight horizontal followed by a multi-stage stimulation operation. So far, we've done only one stage at a time. ... This is going to be multi-stage up to 10 stages all in the same zone. So, we're going to try and exploit as much of the uh potential reservoir as possible. Um doing one stage right after another. Each stage will take between 24 and 36 hours.

So, it'll be like 10 straight days of non-stop stimulation followed by a flowback. So, a lot of stuff that Israel has never seen before once again [Here we go] is coming in. And we're excited. I mean, this is a good opportunity for us to really exploit the potential pay zone area for an extended period, you know, an extended distance as opposed to just a single uh open hole or case hole for that matter, 4 and a half inches, for example, on MJ2 and MJ1. Uh we're going to have we're going to have 900 meters of drilled hole through what we see, what the geologists see as the pay zone. So, good opportunity that if it's in one pocket and not in another, we're not going to miss it by just a short distance. You know, we're hoping to bisect the entire thing and looking forward to seeing what's truly there.

From the January 14, 2026 Update:

This is a full drilling operation, uh, similar to what we've done in the past. We have just about 2,000 meters of drilling to do.

The first half, pretty much vertical, then straight horizontal followed by a multi-stage stimulation operation. So far, we've done only one stage at a time. ... This is going to be multi-stage up to 10 stages all in the same zone. So, we're going to try and exploit as much of the uh potential reservoir as possible. Um doing one stage right after another. Each stage will take between 24 and 36 hours.

So, it'll be like 10 straight days of non-stop stimulation followed by a flowback. So, a lot of stuff that Israel has never seen before once again [Here we go] is coming in. And we're excited. I mean, this is a good opportunity for us to really exploit the potential pay zone area for an extended period, you know, an extended distance as opposed to just a single uh open hole or case hole for that matter, 4 and a half inches, for example, on MJ2 and MJ1. Uh we're going to have we're going to have 900 meters of drilled hole through what we see, what the geologists see as the pay zone. So, good opportunity that if it's in one pocket and not in another, we're not going to miss it by just a short distance. You know, we're hoping to bisect the entire thing and looking forward to seeing what's truly there.

There is a ton of information in the January 14 Update.

2000 meters total.
1100 meters vertical assuming this includes the bend for horizontal, or a vertical drilling depth of 3610 feet.
900 meters or 2953 feet of horizontal through what geologists believe is the pay zone.

We've got A COUPLE MONTHS of drilling and casing . We're going to drill in two sections. We'll have an 8-inch open hole section followed by a 6-inch open hole section. 8 in will be cased with seven-inch casing and 4-and-1/2-inch completion string. and then we'll be ready to move into the well testing phase. So, a lot of activities.

I am assuming the 8-inch section is the vertical section while the 6-inch section is the horizontal. A couple months of drilling and casing tells me we are still a good amount of time out from hearing much of anything with respect to drilling results. If drilling has begun as of last week, then we are looking at August when drilling and casing may be completed. Which implies we still have at least a full month of downward pressure on the stock unless we hear something positive from Zion Oil and Gas.

Coach's Corner pretty much explains it as it is.

This is where faith really supports us through these down pressure times. Without any positive news from Zion in the form of an Operational Update, we will see lower prices.

It would be excellent if Zion could release information on where we currently are with respect to what was forecasted in the January 14 Update.

Tisdal I noticed on the video at ASH meeting when Rob was asked the question how much
oil was down there, watching the room no heads were hanging no somber looks just smiles and giggles almost high fives and Robs responded enough to make us all happy!

I do not think anyone has been chased away.

This is a risky investment.

Investors are waiting to hear that horizontal has begun. That's when speculators will know it's time to take a position. Until then its low volume and charter's taking their positions for swings.

The longer it takes, the more down pressure we'll see.

Come on Zion, where are we?
Are we drilling sideways yet?

When asked "How much oil was down there?" The CEO said, " We will all be happy!"

Now we wait to see how happy.

We know someone has eyes on the site. If they start burning 🔥 off gases the stock will see a rise as we near the discovery.

I am definitely watching 👀 them

Or they woke up. Affinity scams are sneaky and pernicious, taking advantage of the religiously gullible in this case.
many have been chased away.

Its really a shame, many have been chased away.

Watch the WARRANTS due end of month.

Well a good day. Up no news.

I decided I will start an update on a regular basis of known facts, zion news, or markets concerns that directly effect ZNOG.

Did you know we changed exchanges in February?

ZNOG trades on the OTCQX Best Market — the top tier of the OTC markets — having upgraded from the OTCQB venture tier on February 10, 2026.

ZNOG has years of drilling "performances" 😆 🤣
Zion has re-entered the well

Thanks very helpful

LoL.....keep up your great work......love the buying op before the HUGE RUN to many...many dollars..................

Zion has re-entered the well and is currently in the process of drilling out the temporary plug. Following this step, the team will condition the wellbore downhole and proceed with the planned horizontal sidetrack drilling.

1 month or 6 months....where else are you going to make 5,000% plus on your money in that TIME ???? NO WHERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can wait for the RUN to many...many dollars per share................