Discovery Has City Flying High
Energy: Claim of huge natural gas deposit leads Delano to dream of wealth that may result. But some are skeptical.
By GEOFFREY MOHAN, Times Staff Writer
DELANO, Calif.--At the signal from oil wildcatter F. Lynn Blystone, roughnecks opened the valve of a greasy well rig, and with an earsplitting screech, a fat jet of natural gas blasted plumes of dust from the fields outside this San Joaquin Valley town.
City officials covered their ears and dropped their jaws.
"That's the sound of money, loud and powerful," said Delano City Manager Adela Gonzalez.
Indeed, the estimated 3 trillion cubic feet of coveted and pricey natural gas that Blystone, president and chief executive of Tri-Valley Corp. in Bakersfield, claims to have tapped could be the biggest natural gas discovery in California since the 1930s, and might rank among the top in the lower 48 states.
And although the full extent of the find remains unproven--and industry veterans urge caution--Blystone's well has set off a frenzy in this impoverished agricultural town more famous for Cesar Chavez and the pickers who touched off a national grape boycott.
Delano is seeing dollar signs in the dust. It's talking power plants, pipelines, big industry, and independence from the grip of the statewide energy crisis.
Energy consultants are lining up at City Hall, where visitors are urged to use the stairs instead of the elevators to save electricity. Ordinary residents are scurrying to learn if they own mineral rights, mostly finding that their dreams of overnight riches are about as real as the fictional Clampett family on TV's "The Beverly Hillbillies."
"Everybody is doing their research, to see if they have mineral rights," said Delano Mayor Art Armendares. "We're getting control of our own destiny. We can provide citizens with uninterrupted electricity and gas. Then we can put up our shingle and attract industry |
