Zion Oil & Gas Inc (ZNOG)

[KyOil]

The hold up could be due to any number of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with the rig status. But, looking at the rig picture, a couple of points have been made by others:
1. Tubes are in the rack on the rig, not in the hole.
2. No flame from the flare pipe.
3. No apparent activity.

When a test is taking place, tubes would be in the hole to position a packer to isolate the lower zones from the zone under test. This would be true if gas and/or oil were flowing and also true if the valve was shut so that no flow was taking place while watching the pressure recover. If flow was taking place, then the tubes would convey oil to the surface and there would be a flair.

We don't know if this is all the tubes required to reach TD, or a sub-set. If a zone in the Cretaceous was being tested for instance, then only 40% of the tubes are needed in the hole (2000 meter depth vs 5000 meter TD) and the other 60% are on the rack.

Flow testing does not require near the manpower as drilling. Other than setting and retrieving the tube/packer, the rig sits idle. So, it would only be busy when transitioning from one zone to the next. A couple of guys to monitor flow and pressure might be enough. Compared to the 30 or 40 required when drilling.

So, perhaps the following could be concluded from the picture:

1. Rig is still there. This is not proof the well is commercial, but its absence without an announcement would sure be strong evidence for a dry hole.

2. No flame from the flare pipe, so oil is not flowing. The test could be in the pressure recovery phase where there is no flow, or the test could be complete for all zones and it's now down to data analysis, or the rig could be in between zones waiting on the full crew to move the packer.

3. Some quantity of tubes on the rack, so they are at least finished testing the lower portion of the well.