Oracle Is Trucking In Natural Gas to Power Its AI Data Centers, and the Stock Is Sliding
A Bloomberg report says Oracle is hauling compressed natural gas to data centers in Utah and Texas and is weighing the same for its 2.45-gigawatt New Mexico site, at roughly four times the cost of hub-priced gas. Shares fell about 5% Thursday.
Oracle is moving natural gas by truck to power AI data centers that cannot wait for pipelines, according to a Bloomberg report published Thursday. The practice is already in use at sites in Utah and Texas, and Oracle is considering it for Project Jupiter, its 2.45-gigawatt campus in New Mexico. The delivered gas is reported to cost roughly four times as much as gas at a major hub. Oracle shares fell about 5% on the news.
What the report says
| Site | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Near Salt Lake City, Utah | In use | Trucked gas has kept a data center running for more than a year while a pipeline is built |
| Shackelford County, Texas | In use | Deliveries are powering early work at a campus being built for OpenAI |
| Project Jupiter, New Mexico | Under consideration | Trucked gas could start early stages before a delayed pipeline begins service; not confirmed |
The method is sometimes called a "virtual pipeline": gas is drawn from a pipeline, compressed into trailers, driven to the site and decompressed for use. Reports name Certarus as the supplier in Utah and VoltaGrid in Texas. Oracle described the VoltaGrid solution as "cost-effective."
Why Oracle is doing it
Securing power has become one of the biggest constraints on building AI capacity. At Project Jupiter, an Oracle and OpenAI data center under construction in Doña Ana County, the gas pipeline meant to supply the site has slipped. Energy Transfer's pipeline, which federal filings call the Green Chile Project, was originally due in service in August 2026 and is now listed for February 2027. New Mexico's land commissioner has twice rejected requests to build across state trust land.
The site is expected to run on up to 2.45 gigawatts of Bloom Energy fuel cells that burn natural gas, so a delay in gas supply is a delay in power. Last month, Oracle sent the project's developer a force majeure notice, which may shield it from certain payments if further delays occur. In August, an Oracle spokesperson said the project "remains on schedule."
The cost of speed
The price is the catch. According to figures cited by Bloomberg from East Daley Analytics, delivered gas costs roughly four times the price at a major hub once labor, equipment and the trucks' own fuel are included. For a company racing to bring AI capacity online, that premium may be worth paying to avoid idle buildings, but it adds to the already large cost of the buildout.
The market reaction
Oracle shares were trading at $136.30 at 2:27 p.m. ET Thursday, down 5.08%, or $7.29, from Wednesday's close. The report that circulated with the news described the decline as potentially Oracle's steepest in 12 weeks if it held through the close, a claim we could not independently confirm. Bloom Energy, which supplies the fuel cells planned for Jupiter, also fell, down more than 7.5% on the day.
| Claim | What we found |
|---|---|
| Oracle trucks gas in Utah and Texas | Reported by Bloomberg and repeated by multiple outlets |
| Jupiter may use the same approach | Reported as under consideration; not confirmed |
| Cost is about 4x pipeline gas | Estimate from East Daley Analytics via Bloomberg, measured against hub prices |
| Shares down about 6% | Quote at 2:27 PM ET showed $136.30, down 5.08%; other outlets showed about 5.1% to 5.5% |
| Biggest drop in 12 weeks | Not verified |
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