Can natural gas supply handle the AI boom?

What this episode covers

Eric McGuire, director of natural gas and LNG trading analytics at Wood Mackenzie, explains how surging data center demand and massive LNG exports are creating capacity constraints in the US natural gas pipeline system. He details the interconnection process for behind-the-meter gas generation, noting that while building pipelines is faster than electric grid interconnection, regional bottlenecks in the Permian Basin and Northeast are already causing price dislocations and production shut-ins. McGuire highlights that cold weather events cause wellhead freeze-offs, leading to extreme daily price volatility and reliability challenges for data centers seeking 99.999% uptime.