A family in Tabasco has made an unusual discovery beneath their home – while drilling for water, they struck oil.

Members of the Hernández family told the news agency EFE that they were drilling a well inside their home in Belén, a town in the municipality of Macuspana, when instead of water they came across black gold.

“. . . First water started to shoot up, then mud and later oil came out,” Óscar Hernández said.

Manuel Silvan, a blacksmith and neighbor of the Hernández family, confirmed the story, explaining that he had been promised free drinking water.

“The gentleman told us that he was going to install a little well . . . he was going to give us water,” he said.

After the discovery, Civil Protection personnel and soldiers cordoned off the home while technicians from Pemex carried out an investigation.

Forty families in the Fortuna Nacional neighborhood of Belén were evacuated yesterday due to the danger of an explosion.

Macuspana Civil Protection inspector Luis Pereyra said that Pemex personnel believed that the oil either came from an old pipeline or from a petroleum reserve located beneath the family’s home.

Tabasco Governor Adán López told reporters that there is no record of a petroleum pipeline in the area but declined to rule out the possibility that there was one.

EFE reported that authorities are investigating the possibility that the discovery of the oil was in fact a concerted effort to tap a petroleum pipeline and sell the fuel on the black market.

Source: EFE (sp)