Abstract

Approximately 5,000 barrels of oil per day is the current rate of production in Israel. Production is from three contiguous pools situated just northeast of the Gaza Strip of northernmost Egypt. They are known as the Brur, Heletz, and Kokhav pools. The producing formations include about 10 thin sand members of Early Cretaceous (Barriasian )age and the Zohar Limestone of Jurassic (Oxfordian) age. The Lower Cretaceous sands of the Coastal Plain area grade abruptly into a marly shale in a general westward direction. Oil and gas occur in the updip wedge edges of these sands where they shale out on the east flank of a pronounced anticlinal feature. Isolated bar-like trends of oil productive sands also are present. These producing sands both overlie and underlie a reefal dolomite; their western margins, trends, and positions appear to be genetically related to it. Jurassic production is principally from fracture porosity on a well-defined structural anomaly in the Kokhav pool. Although there are only three wells producing oil from the Jurassic (Zohar Limestone) at the present time it is believed that these strata offer the greatest potential for really significant future production in Israel.