cleanenergy, thanks for the link to the recent article I had not seen it yet. Looks like the Petro Commissioner is getting tough on Givot Olam. This new stance from the commissioner, after many years of patience while little was being accomplished, may be related to ZN showing that it can be done.
In various articles over the years I've seen the Meged reservoir being sized from "hundreds of millions of barrels" like the article you linked, to 1.5 billion barrels in the Wikipedia link in my previous post.
Givot Olam has a few challenges that ZN does not face:
1. Lack of ability to raise funds.
2. Shallow technical and business team.
3. Good portion of the field is in the West Bank.
And MJ#1 has a very positive attribute over Meged: very high gas pressure! I don't recall seeing a published pressure from the Meged field, but I'm assuming that MJ#1 has considerably higher pressure because:
A. ZN would have sized the BOP on MJ#1 based on pressures seen in the area, which would include Meged and the Genie field in the Golan Heights (also a disputed territory), and
B. ZN had to increase the BOP on MJ#1 due to gas observed while drilling. This conclusion comes by connecting the dots from many sources, including Dustin Guinn's comments on the shareholder meeting video, and PRs going back to last fall.
And it is a known relationship that higher gas pressure when oil is present means very good prospects for larger quantities of oil. And ZN reported that oil is present in MJ#1 (not just a gas well).
It follows that:
1. MJ#1 has higher pressure than either Meged or Golan Heights
2. MJ#1 has oil
3. The reserves of Meged are up to 1.5 billion barrels, and the reserves of Golan Heights are "billions of barrels",
Therefore, the MJ#1 tapped into a field that has reserves greater than a billion barrels! Further, the MJ#1 strike will be commercial because:
A. The location is not in a disputed territory, and
B. The company making the discovery is properly funded and has a deep technical and business team.
