Offshore Data Center LLC, in collaboration with the Houston-based Riverway Group, is designing and constructing offshore platforms that utilize remote or undervalued natural gas to power data centers. This approach enables producers to monetize gas that is not economically viable under conventional development models.
Benefits of Using Remote Gas
Art Schroeder, CEO of Offshore Data Center, stated: "A significant amount of offshore gas is never developed or simply reinjected into reservoirs because transporting it to market is not economically feasible." He added: "By placing the data center next to the gas, we eliminate the need for pipelines to shore and transmission lines, significantly reducing cooling costs."
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Platform Capacity and Design
Offshore Data Center is looking for gases that are remote, uneconomic, or undervalued. This includes gases that are reinjected beyond the reservoir pressure maintenance needs. The company's concepts range from facilities with capacities up to one gigawatt (1 GW) for large-scale artificial intelligence training to smaller and faster setups for edge computing and variable inference. In each case, electricity generation and modular liquid-cooled GPUs and CPUs are placed next to the gas source.
The design of these platforms combines semi-submersible hull designs from Offshore Data Center's partner, Horton of Brazil, and advanced welding and construction methods from Riverway Group. These companies claim that the end result is a hull that is up to 50 percent lighter than traditional designs and has better sustainability, making construction in the Gulf Coast of the United States competitive with shipbuilding yards in South Korea, China, and Singapore.
These hulls can bear significant weight, including data centers, ammonia or methanol units, and conventional production facilities. They also utilize a deep ocean cooling system with a closed loop. According to the companies' claims, cooling can account for up to 40 percent of a data center's energy consumption, and using deep ocean cold water reduces this burden and improves electricity generation efficiency.
Schroeder also added: "Riverway allows us to build these platforms in the United States." The companies expect this collaboration to bolster U.S. offshore production and domestic energy development, increase artificial intelligence computing capacity, and create jobs.
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