Natural Gas Site Expected to Yield Large Supply

A group of small Canadian and American energy companies said it expects to collect a substantial amount of natural gas from a site near Bakersfield where it started testing flows at a new well over the weekend. Berkley Petroleum Corp., the 5-year-old Calgary, Canada, firm leading the drilling, said the East Lost Hills, Calif., well could generate as much as 30 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. That would nearly double the flow of an earlier well in the area that caught fire in 1998 and had to be shut down. The fire did not injure any workers, but it set back the group’s plans for the field, said Berkley spokesman Doug van den Brink. Demand for clean-burning natural gas has outpaced supply worldwide. The news pushed up shares of Berkley and its partners on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Berkley rose $1.50, or 19%, to close at $9.30.