Zion Oil & Gas Inc (ZNOG)

[microcaps1]

i think the last time i looked at it they had c 7 times more options this year than last year
thier website states officers and or board are not allowed to buy or sell ZNOG stock as of 2017- so if they want shares it will have to be through options
in other words, they will have to wait to reap -which will eventually occur through the exercising of options rather than buying or selling on the open market-open market Board/officer transactions are closely scrutinized -especially when a company is already being closely watched

and ZN's 2017 policy may partly be due to blowback because the texas railroad commissioner and past judge who was their Ceo prior to mr guinn(sp?)-[who introduced current CEO Dunn] sold most of his holdings when he resigned-and that selling led to confusion
options are very standard as part of a boards/officers salary in lieu of cash -instead of cash- especially in a company that doesnt have revenue yet

even though, like most companies, they dont have a committee to address stockholder concerns, some board/officer members must be aware the dspp program diverts significant open market buying and thus weakens the market pps
thus to partially address that ZNOG may have increased the percentage of salary(officers) and board(compensation) allocated to options in order to further conserve cash to ZNOG to partially ameliorate the effect of dspp buying on the pps
though i dont remember specifically reading that in the 50 plus page proxy materials that is logically inferred from the following which your post noted:

In 2022 and in the future, the Compensation Committee believes it is appropriate to place a heavier emphasis on long-term equity incentives in our executive officer compensation, as opposed to cash compensation. The Compensation Committee’s intent is to more closely align our stockholders’ interest to create long-term value with that of our executive officers through equity incentives, and to preserve cash for our exploration programs.”