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One man tired of gas prices decided to take matters into his own hands. He had an oil rig built right in his backyard.
AAA is reporting that nearly 32 million Americans drove over the Memorial Day weekend. And with gas prices at record highs, many are looking for ways to cut costs at the pump after the holiday splurge.
When you think of oil tycoons, Dallas' JR Ewing comes to mind, but deep in the heart of Indiana, it's the new and backyard version of oil drilling.
"It's a moneymaker. I don't want to say too much on it...but it's a moneymaker," said Gregg Losh. He is referring to the three barrel a day producing oil well, right in his backyard.
With oil at a record $135 a barrel, and many experts predicting that figure to continue rising, Losh's well is expected to be
profitable and then some by the end of the year..
"If you have one well in backyard probably over the course of a year you'd be earning tens of thousands of dollars, but you're not having to do any labor, it's almost like winning the lottery," said Rice Professor Amy Myers Jaffe.
Losh didn't discover his bubbling prize on his own. Having detected the hot commodity in the surrounding area, a local oil
company landman approached him. Landmen like the California character portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis in "There Will be Blood".
California continues to spew oil today. The Tony Beverly Hills High School, sits atop black gold. In fact, sweet crude flows across the country.
"A lot of oil in the Rocky Mountains, we have oil of course here in Texas and Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma," said Professor Jaffe.
So should Americans who are sick of digging into their wallets for extra cash for gas, start digging in their own backyards?
"This really isn't something that you and I could go out and do by ourselves," said Prof. Jaffe, "theoretically you could but the problem
is that all the gases, and water and oil that is under the ground is actually highly pressurized and takes a tremendous amount of technical knowledge."
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