Yes there is oil in Israel, and with the drilling of a new well on the shores of the Dead Sea, there may be a lot more. It's difficult, however, to know what's worse from an environmental standpoint; continuing mining of potash and other minerals at the Dead Sea, or drilling for oil. While the potash industry has been going on for years there, including a unique method of extracting the mineral from Dead Sea water, interest in drilling for both oil and natural gas has also been happening, with some measure of success. Following the discovery of natural gas back in the 1960's, a sufficient quantity of oil was brought up from a well drilled by the Naphtha Israel Petroleum Company during the 1990's. The Dead Sea, or Salt Sea (Yam Hamelach as it is known in Israel), is the lowest dry land point in the world, and has been steady receding since most of the flow of the Jordan River (the lake's main water source) was diverted into Israel's national water carrier. As a result, only a trickle of Jordan River water reaches the Dead Sea, and environmentalists fear the lake will be gone entirely by the year 2050. Drilling for oil and gas in the areas near the Dead Sea have so for only had limited success, with the biggest so far being Naptha's Tzuk Tamrur 3 well, which was drilled in the early 1990's and brought in around 120,000 barrels of oil. As noted in an article in Israel's Globes Financial News this well as so far been considered as a success story, and only became unprofitable due to the then price of oil, which at the time was between $18 and 20 a barrel. With oil running four times as much per barrel nowadays, Naptha decided to drill a new well, Tzuk Tamrur 4 , about 3 kilometers north of the Tamrur 3 well. The well is planned to reach a depth of 2,000 meters, and take two months at a cost of $4.5 million. The environmental problems dealing will drilling for oil, as well as from oil itself, have been covered by many news articles. So have the unique eco-structure of the Dead Sea itself, where the receding water has resulted in the creation of numerous "sink holes" ranging in size from half a meter up to 30 meters across. Oil wells require environmentally damaging infrastructures such as sludge pools for salt water and oil residues to drain into, as well as space for drill pipe and well pipe casing to be stored. And when an oil pool is found, a considerable amount of crude oil comes out onto the ground until the well is finally "capped". There is also a danger of a well catching on fire, which can be environmentally damaging, especially for an area as ecologically fragile as the Dead Sea. It seems that more than enough money has already been made of the Potash and other minerals extracted from the Dead Sea, as well as all the cosmetics that have been made from Dead Sea mud and minerals. And with oil being considered as a major cause of global warming, it might be better to just leave this kind of project well enough alone, especially if we are preserve a natural wonder that is not only very unique, but also gives medical relief annually to thousands of sufferers from skin conditions like psoriasis, and lung conditions like asthma.