Oracle uses natural gas trucks to power data centers - report

Investing.com -- Oracle Corp. is delivering natural gas by truck to several data centers to maintain construction schedules while waiting for pipeline infrastructure to be completed, according to a Bloomberg report Thursday.

The company used truck deliveries to keep a data center near Salt Lake City operational for over a year while awaiting pipeline construction and integration, according to the report. Oracle is said to be applying the same method at a campus being built for OpenAI in Shackelford County, Texas.

Oracle is now considering the truck delivery approach in New Mexico, where a delayed gas pipeline threatens the timeline of a data center called Project Jupiter, the report added. The plan would allow the company to bring early stages of the facility online before the pipeline begins service.

Last month, Oracle sent a force majeure notice to the New Mexico project's developer, which may protect the company from certain payments if additional delays occur.

Energy Transfer LP had to reroute the pipeline serving Oracle's data center after state regulators rejected a proposed route. The change pushed the pipeline company's targeted service date to next year from this summer.

Companies including Superior Plus Corp.'s Certarus and VoltaGrid LLC are offering compressed gas transportation services as temporary power solutions while pipelines are built.

Oracle used Certarus for gas deliveries at the Utah project and VoltaGrid in Texas.

"Shoutout to the VoltaGrid team for finding cost-effective power solutions to ensure our customers can access OCI capacity on schedule," Oracle wrote on social media, referring to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Oracle's free cash flow is currently negative and is expected to remain negative until more AI data centers are completed.

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