(WO) – Offshore Data Center LLCis teaming up with Kalypso Offshore Energy to help offshore gas owners earn money from stranded, underused and undervalued gas by using it to power AI computing offshore. The companies will evaluate both new-build facilities and the reuse of existing offshore infrastructure, including selected “idle iron,” for modular edge and inference computing.
“A significant number of platforms in the Gulf of America are slated for decommissioning even though some may retain useful structural life,” said Art Schroeder, founder and CEO of Offshore Data Center. “Working with operators, regulators and Kalypso, we plan to evaluate opportunities to place modular data centers on suitable existing assets, create new revenue from offshore resources and potentially defer certain Asset Retirement Obligation expenditures.”
Putting power generation and computing near offshore gas resources is meant to shorten the usual chain, in which gas is turned into power and then transmitted to a data center on land. Offshore Data Center brings in its partners, including Horton do Brasil, whose semisubmersible hull designs the companies say could be up to 50% lighter with better stability. They say that would make construction on the U.S. Gulf Coast competitive with shipyards in Korea, China and Singapore. Offshore Data Center’s partners also provide closed-loop cooling systems designed to significantly cut data center cooling loads.
Kalypso will lead the subsea cable work that connects the facilities to the grid, communication networks and shore. That includes route development, engineering, installation and connection of fiber-optic, power and umbilical cables, plus repair, operations and maintenance support. “An offshore data center is only as good as the cables that connect it,” said Owen Rataj, director of Kalypso Offshore Energy. “Low-latency fiber to shore, reliable power connections and a repair and maintenance capability close to the assets are what turn an offshore platform into usable compute capacity.”
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