North Sea gas to power offshore AI data centre
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North Sea gas to power offshore AI data centre Jonathan Leake Fri, 17 July 2026 at 1:30 am GMT-4 3 min read ORCA.L NG=F GOOGL A British energy company is planning to build what is thought to be the world's first offshore, gas-powered data centre in the North Sea. Orcadian Energy , a London-listed oil and gas exploration business, revealed the proposals for a power station and AI data centre 65 miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. It is preparing to build new platforms over the Earlham gas field, whose output would fuel the power station supplying electricity to the data centre. The CO2 generated from burning the gas would then be pumped straight back under the seabed, which the company claimed would make the data centre one of Britain's greenest. Orcadian, an AIM-listed business that holds a licence for the gas field, said it planned to sell capacity to data giants such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft, adding that the scheme would also avoid adding further pressure on the UK power grid from surging data centre demand . Stephen Brown, Orcadian's chief executive, said: "Demand for compute, driven by the artificial intelligence revolution, has upended electricity demand forecasts around the world. "We believe offshore power stations coupled with offshore data centres could help to satisfy part of that demand." Under the plans, gas would be extracted from the Earlham reservoir and a nearby field called Orwell via a single offshore platform, then piped to an adjacent structure housing a power station. The CO2 generated by burning the gas would then be captured and pumped back beneath the seabed, while the electricity would power a 200-megawatt data centre on a third platform. Unlike a typical gas field, which requires a pipeline back to the mainland, the Earlham site would not need to be directly connected to the grid; instead, it would transmit data back via cables. Orcadian said the concept would also mean data centres could be built "far from anyone's backyard" amid growing protests against vast new technology hubs being constructed around the world. The company added that the scheme could be just the first phase of a network of similar projects, with plans for multiple power stations and data centre halls that together could provide up to a gigawatt of power. A key driver is that the gas in the Earlham field already contains a high proportion of CO2, making cleanup for conventional use expensive. AI businesses have been eyeing offshore energy schemes to keep up with the soaring power demands of their data centre plans. However, so far these have mostly relied on experiments involving tidal energy or wind power. China has developed an underwater data centre, powered by floating wind turbines. South Korea's Samsung has been developing floating data barges powered by natural gas fuel cells. Meanwhile, technology billionaire Peter Thiel has backed a start-up developing autonomous, floating data centres powered by waves. Mr Brown said: "This development concept for Earlham, focused on generating low-carbon power offshore to supply an offshore data centre, can be transformational. "This project is one which we believe supports the government's vision of a clean UK power system in 2030, whilst also delivering on the Government's energy security goals and crucially enabling the construction of a gigascale data centre."
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