Israel Energy Initiatives Ltd (IEI) is an Israeli company based in Jerusalem. IEI is developing an environmentally acceptable approach to produce clean transportation fuels from oil shale utilizing its In-Situ conversion technology. The Shfela basin holds a total of 150 billion barrels of oil equivalent, over 40 billion barrels of which are in IEI's license area.
IEI is a subsidiary of Genie Energy, which is a publicly traded (NYSE: GNE) company based in Newark, NJ (Genie was recently spun off from the international holding company IDT). IEIs affiliate, AMSO, is engaged in an oil shale project using a different concept of In-Situ conversion, on Federal land in Colorado, through a joint venture with oil giant Total.
IEI holds an exclusive exploration and production license granted by the Israeli Government pursuant to Israels Petroleum Law. Under the terms of the license, IEI is obligated to conduct a comprehensive geological reconnaissance study in the license area (70,000 acres), and a subsequent small scale field production test (pilot). The pilot goals are to demonstrate that the In-Situ conversion process (ICP) is technologically feasible, economically viable and environmentally responsible.