Source: The Texas Tribune
With its vast energy infrastructure and growing demand from AI, Texas is positioning natural gas as the backbone of tomorrow’s data-driven economy.
As the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers skyrockets, natural gas is emerging as a key player in meeting the growing energy needs, particularly in regions like Texas’ Permian Basin.
At the Permian Power Connection conference, Jose Ortega of FO Permian highlighted that the demand for power from AI centers will surge to 5-6 gigawatts over the next five years. Natural gas, with its flexibility and abundance, is perfectly positioned to support this shift. In fact, Ortega’s company is working on a scalable 300-megawatt gas plant in Midland County, designed to grow to 1 gigawatt by 2030, which can serve multiple data center campuses.
Texas’ Permian Basin is increasingly seen as an ideal location for these high-demand facilities. The region has the land, energy infrastructure, and transmission capabilities to support large-scale data centers. Kevin Yung of Priority Power emphasized the long-term potential, noting that attracting investments for data centers will require planning for future needs.
Natural gas production, especially from the Permian, is key to this vision. As Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, highlighted during a TXOGA Talks podcast, “Data centers don’t operate like other industrial consumers. They need a constant, uninterrupted power supply.” Staples emphasized that natural gas is ideally suited for this role due to its reliability and the scale of production in Texas.
The ongoing growth of natural gas demand, both domestically and globally, is making Texas a powerhouse in energy, and Texas’ natural gas supply is up to the challenge. In fact, Texas accounts for 43% of the nation’s crude oil production and nearly 30% of its natural gas output.
The future of data centers and AI computing in Texas is tightly linked to natural gas. As demand grows, Texas is poised to continue playing a leading role in meeting both the nation’s and the world’s energy needs.
