Hoosier Oil Tycoons? No. Really.

Here’s another potential way for us to keep our farm sustainable. Check out Indiana resident Greg Losh who has decided to start drilling for oil on his property.

He’s pulling up about three barrels a day. At over $133 a barrel, that could start to add up over a year. Apparently, Losh hasn’t sold any of his oil yet, but he’s also pumping up natural gas that’s heating his home and the homes of several others.

This is definitely not the first time someone has speculated and struck black gold in my home territory. Umm…Gas City. Any idea how that little hamlet got its name? There’s tons of natural gas veins and, yes, oil in those parts.

The gas and oil wells were all over the place in the late 1800s. In addition to wells drying up, I’m sure it wasn’t much worth investing in drilling equipment until, well, gas prices began to soar.

Apparently Losh’s oil is coming from the near forgotten Trenton oil field in Delaware County. More on the Indiana oil and gas boom, here from the Indiana Geological Survey.

Here’s a little Brightcove video clip from Reuters about Losh’s well and a mention of the oil field, which used to be among the largest in the country.

http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/452319854

I’m not sure I’d be all that enthused about an unsightly oil pump or the odor of fresh crude wafting through my house. But, the idea that we could make our own energy…from natural gas, or maybe wind power or solar power, is attractive.

That’s apparently what Losh was going for all along…his own natural gas well. The oil was a bonus.

It remains to be seen if we’ve learned from our mistakes.

Note the IGS’s explanation of what ended the Hoosier Oil & Gas boom:

The boom quickly ended in the beginning of the 20th century because wasted resources and unregulated drilling practices caused a precipitous drop in production. Unfortunately much of the resource was wasted or lost through the burning of gas at the surface and the contamination of oil by fresh water within the subsurface reservoir.