While Former President Donald Trump captivated the recent RNC audience with promises of a better life built upon the back of increased fossil fuel production, the opposition remains steadfast in its quest to close the doors to the O&G industry. As technological advancement mounts as a global race, Williams Companies CEO Alan Armstrong recently warned the United States could lag if it ignores natural gas as a proppant in meeting the insatiable electricity demand levied by data centers.
“The only way we’re going to be able to keep up with this kind of power demand and the electrification that’s already afoot is natural gas,” said Armstrong in a Thursday interview. “If we deny ourselves that we’re going to fall behind in the AI race.”
Williams Companies manages approximately one-third of domestic natural gas using a pipeline network spanning over 300,000 miles. That network includes the Transco 10,000-mile pipeline that carries natural gas to almost the entire eastern seaboard, including the state of Virginia, which just so happens to reign as the world’s most significant data center hub. Additionally, the Transco supplies natural gas to Georgia, a growing market in the Southeastern United States.
Experts predict with the expansion of data center capability to support AI and the pending adoption of electric vehicles, the United States will demand an additional 290 terawatt hours of electricity by the end of the current decade. According to a recent Rystad report, the extra load growth mirrors Turkey’s electricity requirements. Concerns have increased about the potential stifling of economic development and the artificial intelligence advancement surge if the increase in electricity demands cannot be met. Natural gas offers a viable solution, but its use needs to align with clean energy transition strategies.
“We are going to run right up against a brick wall here and pretty quickly in terms of not having enough power available to do what we want to do on the AI side,” said Armstrong. “I actually see this as a huge national security issue. We’re going to have to get out of our own way or we’re going to accidentally keep ourselves from being the power we can be in the AI space.”
Multiple independent data center developers have attempted to implement solutions by looking to Williams Companies for a direct supply of natural gas from its tributaries of natural gas pipelines. While the business demand is optimal, challenges still arise.
“We’re completely out of capacity ourselves,” said Armstrong. “So, we just have to kind of beg, borrow and steal from other people’s capacity to do our best to make gas available.”
According to a news release from the Williams Companies’ website, many customers are projecting increased capacity. Georgia Power indicated its current load growth projections have increased seventeen times higher than two years ago and, as a result, will require additional gas-powered generation. Duke Energy announced that its combined demand for North Carolina and South Carolina has seen eight times the load growth since 2022. Dominion Energy realizes that new data center power load needs will increase 2.5 times over the next decade in that Virginia hub, which boasts over 35 percent of all hyper-scale data centers globally.
To feed the growing demand, Williams Companies is expanding the Transco capacity by 3.1 billion cubic feet per day, a 15 percent rise in contracted long-term capacity. Armstrong revealed that demand has increased overall by 56 percent since 2005, while interstate capacity has increased 26 percent, with storage seeing a rise of four percent.
“We feel like we’ve got some really big competitive advantages,” said Armstrong in an interview with CNBC. “Because in these heavily populated areas that we go through like Virginia and Maryland, Washington DC, North Carolina […} that is where they’re wanting to put the data centers because they’ve got good access to the communications systems, including the Transatlantic fiber systems.”
Nick Vaccaro is a freelance writer and photographer. In addition to providing technical writing services, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas industry with twelve years of experience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Magazine, American Oil and Gas Investor, Oil and Gas Investor, Energies Magazine and Louisiana Sportsman Magazine. He has a BA in photojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or [email protected].
