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Analysts from Tudor Pickering Holt&Co, an investment bank, said in a report on Tuesday that the surge in power consumption in AI data centers may significantly boost natural gas demand in the next five years of this decade.
The report added that in order to meet the demand growth, 8.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas may be needed every day.
American power and technology companies are worried that the expansion speed of the American power system is not fast enough to meet the rapidly growing power demand of technologies such as generative artificial intelligence, which has prompted data center enterprises to bypass utility companies and directly reach agreements with power producers or establish their own supply.
According to the latest data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the increase in overall demand has increased the demand for grid connection of power generation and energy storage projects nationwide, from 2000 gigawatts in 2022 to 2600 gigawatts in 2023.
According to the report, in the last five years of this decade, the average price of natural gas may reach US $4 per million British thermal units.
In February this year, the price of natural gas hit a three-and-a-half year low of $1.61 per million British thermal units. This is mainly because the mild winter weather forced many producers to cut production.
Analysts predict that pipeline operators such as Kinder Morgan, Williams and Energy Transfer will be in the best position to take advantage of the growing demand for natural gas, while natural gas producers such as EQT and Chesapeake Energy will also benefit from it.
By number
The report estimates that the current power demand of the data center is 11 GW, which is expected to increase to 42 GW by 2030 under basic conditions.
The report adds that under its basic conditions, about 2.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas will be added by 2030.
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