How to Calculate Royalties if Well is Co-Located with Gas Power?

AI data centers are all the rage. The news (local and national) is full of such stories, playing up opposition to data centers. We've written plenty about AI data centers on MDN, given the close connection to gas-fired power that's needed to operate them. We've also told you about a developing trend of "behind the meter" gas-fired power plants, built at the same location as a data center. That's when the data center is built next to a power plant or vice versa. The electricity goes directly to the plant and never flows through the local power grid. Another part of this story is that sometimes the gas-fired power plant that's on-site powering the data center receives its gas from a well drilled at the same site! The gas flows directly into the gas plant (bypassing gathering pipelines), and the plant produces electricity for the data center. And therein lies a potential, very thorny issue.

---

To view this content, log into your member account. (Not a member? Join Today!)