How do you make a barrel of oil laugh? You tell it some crude humor!
It’s always interesting to see when things get a bit mixed up in new ways, and some news coming out about oil companies now is exactly that. A couple of the big ones are kicking around a shocking turn of events - jumping into electricity generation!
Say watt…?! We’ve got the details, so let’s check ‘em out!
Here are Five Fast Facts on oil companies dabbling with electricity:
- 🦵 Hook Me Up - Two of the biggest oil companies in the world, Exxon Mobil and Chevron, are showing some leg to data center customers in the hopes of signing a deal to provide natural gas power for plants that would service over a million homes. Hey, sexy…!
- 🤔 Target Rationale - Wind and solar are no bueno - the profits are too low, and oil companies don’t play in that space so they don’t have experience there.
- 🏭 If You Build It - What oil companies do have, however, is experience building huge, complex power plants to support major industrial industries (their own). In fact, they probably have more than most power companies!
- ⚡ Advantages - Oil companies have several advantages if they move forward with this. They can move fast, they can put plants near their own fuel-gathering facilities, and they can sell that power directly to nearby data centers without having to run that power through the main power grid. They’re also used to making massive investments in unstable markets, and they have huge cash flow to make it all happen.
- 💰 Cha-Ching - Profits are there for the taking! They could sell premium power access to those data centers, or they could slap on carbon capture tech (which they already have) to make it much more sustainable…for an extra fee, of course!
🔥Bottom line: It’s still really early, so it’s hard to tell how this might impact normal folks’ Paychecks. But, anytime there’s the opportunity for more power, that means it’s likely to get less expensive, and that’s a great thing!
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