Bloomberg: Oracle Considering Trucking Compressed Gas for Project Jupiter
As Southern New Mexico Data Center continues to face headwinds in accessing fuel for its proposed project, its developers appear to be exploring trucking compressed natural gas to power up the operations.
Project Jupiter, the data center campus development that New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham hailed as “groundbreaking” as she penned a deal with its developer in February 2025, continues to run into opposition and delays.
The deal signed by the Governor included her promise that state agencies under her control would “provide incentives” and “use reasonable efforts to timely process all applications and approvals for the Infrastructure and Campuses that are correctly completed, requested, and filed” by the developers or its contractors.
But despite Lujan Grisham’s promises and the efforts of Secretary of Environment James Kenney and Secretary of Economic Development Rob Black, the project has bogged down.
In late September, the Wall Street Journal reported Oracle sent a force majeure notice to Stack Infrastructure, the construction entity for the project. That maneuver could extend the time Oracle needs to meet its rent obligations.
The Wall Street Journal article, entitled, “Cracks in Oracle’s AI Data-Center Build-Out Appear in Massive New Mexico Project,” also reported that the projects original developer, BorderPlex Digital Assest, LLC, had been removed from the project.
Background.
Earlier this year, the data center project’s efforts to route gas pipeline infrastructure for fueling the development hit a wall that even the Governor couldn’t bulldoze her way through.
New Mexico’s State Land Commissioner, Stephanie Garcia Richards, an independently elected state official not beholden to the Governor, twice denied issuing a permit for a pipeline to cross state lands, once in March and again this summer, writing in a letter on July 14, 2026,
“… building pipelines and other gas infrastructure intended to serve Project Jupiter is a poor use of New Mexico state trust lands and staff resources, and based on available information appears that it will impose environmental costs on New Mexico greater than any resulting benefit to the trust, our people and our resources. Advancing the massive use of gas for a project of this scale is simply not in the best interest of the trust. For these reasons, I am upholding the agency’s determination not to issue the rights-of-way and business lease to Energy Transfer that are component parts of Project Jupiter.”
(A copy of the Land Commissioner’s letter can be found at the end of this reporting.)
But in a move that some of the opponents of the data center project see as an attempt to reassure investors, Oracle – a partner in the development of the project – is reported to be exploring a temporary work-around for the initial fuel needs in opening the campus.
Bloomberg Reports Trucking Alternative.
Originally reported by Bloomberg, as a key tenant of Project Jupiter, Oracle is considering a trucking alternative to power up its planned operations as access to a pipeline source of gas has been at least temporarily sidelined.
Bloomberg reported that this is not a new strategy.
The tenant, Oracle AI, has used deliveries of compressed gas for a data center near Salt Lake City, and a facility it is building in Texas for OpenAI.
Bloomberg reporters Brody Ford and Julian Hast wrote in the Bloomberg article,
“Oracle is considering using the same strategy in New Mexico, where a gas pipeline to help power one of its most crucial data centers is delayed and threatening the project’s timeline, according to people familiar with the project. A plan to use trucks to deliver compressed natural gas to the data center, called Project Jupiter, would let the company get the early stages of it online before the pipeline enters service, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the strategy hasn’t been made public.” – from Bloomberg Technology Report, October 8, 2026.
Such an approach is expensive, costing as much as four times the cost of fuel delivered via a pipeline, requiring a multi-stage compression process and inter-stage cooling utilizing air or water, before it is loaded into “tube” trailers with special reinforced carbon-cylinders engineered for intense pressure, and then trucked to the data center fuel station.
The Project also hit snags in its efforts to move the project along when opponents objected this summer to efforts by the New Mexico Environment Department and a Hearing Officer, appointed by the agency’s Secretary James Kenney, to expedite an air quality permit hearing.
Opponents argued the expedited schedule limited the ability to review and analyze critical air quality measures and data included in the permit applications.
Additionally, opponents appealed to the state’s highest Court objecting to the hearing officer’s schedule and denial of discovery for the hearing, which delayed the process for about three weeks.
The hearing officer eventually resigned and, as The Candle previously reported, a new hearing officer, Retired Federal Judge James O. Browning, was appointed on October 2, 2026.
A pre-hearing conference is now scheduled for Thursday, October 15, 2026 to discuss the rules and schedule for the hearing for the air quality permit.
State Land Commissioner’s July Letter Denying Rights-of-way and Business Lease
Note: Although there is no legal requirement to disclose (and, as it is also a matter of public record) The Candle acknowledges that Bruce Wetherbee, editor of The Candle, filed an entrance of appearance in the Air Quality Permit matter related to Project Jupiter which is before the New Mexico Environment Department and described as (AQB 26-57(P): Yucca Growth Infrastructure, LLC – YGI Microgrid (Project Jupiter). Wetherbee’s participation in the hearing process affords an opportunity to take part in the motion and discovery process (should discovery be authorized) and for cross examination of witnesses presenting technical testimony – such participation is afforded to any person so interested under the NMAC.