US wildcatter Zion Oil’s Biblical-inspired Israel drilling has come up dry. Again. After lengthy testing of its Megiddo-Jezreel 1 well the firm eventually announced on 16 August that it “cannot be considered commercially successful,” but called on shareholders to stump up more cash for testing of further layers. On 27 September Zion said its donation box had received $5.3mn and that testing would resume (MEES, 28 September). Failure came swiftly this time. Zion announced on 20 November that “the well is not commercially productive.” But yet again the call to alms went out as the firm said it plans further exploration requiring “additional financial resources, which we will need to raise.” With its share price down 57% since the announcement to $0.51 as MEES went to press, will Zion’s long-suffering believers dig deep again? Or will it be apocalypse soon?