The Kurnub Group (Lower Cretaceous) contains potential oil and gas reservoirs in eastern Israel, in the northern Negev, and on the south Hebron arch.

The subsurface structural pattern of the Kurnub Group is essentially the same as that at the surface where Cenomanian-Turonian strata crop out. The facies are continental in the south and southeast, and grade into marine beds toward the northwest. Numerous transgressions and regressions of the Kurnub Group sea are apparent where continental and marine strata are interbedded. The sandstone beds are continuous, permeable aquifers through most of the region. The fluid system and its character are controlled by the structure and stratigraphy. Two structurally high areas, the Hebron arch in the north and the northern Negev anticlines in the south, are the water-intake areas. The Dead Sea graben, 400 m. below mean sea-level, and the Mediterranean Sea are the drainage bases on the east and w st, respectively.

Many of the anticlines in the area have been drilled, and the Kurnub Group generally is found to be water-bearing. There still are, however, possibilities of locating oil and gas accumulations in stratigraphic and (or) hydrodynamic traps, where a favorable combination of structure, facies change, and hydrodynamic fluid fluid is present.