Gas Pipeline Players in Talks To Fuel AI Datacenter Demand

Proximity to natural gas lines could become just as desirable for datacenter operators as high-speed fiber-optic networks as they scramble to satiate AI's ever growing thirst for power. From a report: Speaking to analysts during their respective earnings call this week, executives at Energy Transfer LP and Williams Companies, both of which operate pipelines across the US, revealed they were in talks with datacenter operators to supply them with large quantities of natural gas. "We are, in four different states, in discussions with multiple datacenters of different sizes. Some of them, or many of them, want to put generation on site ... So it's an enormous opportunity for us," Mackie McCrea, co-CEO of Energy Transfer LP, told Wall Street, according to a transcript. Energy Transfer LP's pipelines currently span 15 states in the USA, serving 185 power plants. Looking at the opportunity afforded by datacenter hookups, McCrea estimated that power demand could increase by 30 to 40 gigawatts over the next six to eight years. "We believe we are extremely well positioned to benefit from the anticipated rise in natural gas needs," Energy Transfer LP co-CEO Tom Long added. Energy Transfer LP isn't the only pipeline operator eager to take advantage of skyrocketing datacenter power demands. Speaking to analysts earlier this week, Williams Companies CEO Alan Armstrong expressed optimism about the firm's ability to capitalize on this demand.

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