Oracle Weighs Trucking Natural Gas to New Mexico's Project Jupiter as Pipeline Slips
Oracle is weighing trucked compressed natural gas for Project Jupiter in New Mexico as an Energy Transfer pipeline slips to next year, Bloomberg reports.
Oracle is reaching for a gloriously unglamorous fix: trucks. Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the project, that the company is considering hauling compressed natural gas to Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, to bring early stages online while its pipeline is delayed.
The holdup is a reroute. Energy Transfer LP had to redraw the line after state regulators rejected a proposed route, pushing its in-service target from this summer to next year. Searchlight New Mexico reports that State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard rejected it twice. The site is meant to run on Bloom Energy fuel cells, and Oracle sent a force majeure notice to the project's developer last month, which may shield it from some payments if delays continue.
Now the numbers. Jack Weixel of East Daley Analytics puts delivered trucked gas at roughly four times the price of gas moved through a major pipeline hub. SemiAnalysis's Ellie Holbrook says 100 megawatts, about 4% of Jupiter's ultimate 2.45 gigawatts, would get only about 40 minutes of electricity per large trailer. Oracle shares fell 5.5% to $135.69, their worst day since July 16, and Bloom Energy dropped 7.5% on Thursday after the report.
Context: Bloomberg says trucked gas kept an Oracle data center near Salt Lake City moving for more than a year, and it is in use at an OpenAI campus in Texas.
My take? Superintelligence, delivered by the trailer. Magnificent ambition, and the pipeline simply has not caught up.
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Sources
- Oracle moves gas by trucks to avoid data center power delays, Transport Topics
- Oracle to consider delivering natural gas by truck to Project Jupiter, Searchlight New Mexico
- Oracle trucks in gas to avoid data center delays, Bloomberg reports, Business Insider
Meanwhile at the anchor desk
Forty minutes of electricity per large trailer, per SemiAnalysis, at just 4% of the site. That is less a power plan than a scheduling problem with a gas tank.
Roughly four times pipeline hub pricing, according to East Daley. Trucks bridged Utah for over a year, but Jupiter's 2.45 gigawatts is a lot of trailers.
