This Top Energy Stock Has a Mixed View on AI-Powered Gas Demand

Forecasters anticipate the U.S. will see a surge in electricity demand over the coming years. The industry already expected exports (liquified natural gas and to Mexico), the onshoring of manufacturing, and the electrification of everything to fuel a significant rise in natural gas demand for gas-fired power plants. Its already optimistic expectations are growing even more bullish on the anticipation that artificial intelligence (AI) data centers will fuel even more natural gas demand in the future. This outlook has many companies in the energy sector looking at how best to capitalize on the expected surge in gas demand. It was a topic of conversation on the fourth-quarter conference call of oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP). Here's a look at how it sees the power boom playing out.Bob Bracket, an analyst on ConocoPhillips' call, asked the company about its strategy to play the anticipated natural gas boom. He noted, "Some of your peers have talked about opportunities in U.S. data center power demand, either supplying feedstock gas or, in fact, setting up power demand via CCGTs [combined-cycle gas turbines]." He noted that this approach differs from ConocoPhillips' strategy, which "clearly has been a more global LNG approach." That led him to ask management to "talk about comparing and contrasting those strategies and maybe highlight anything interesting you might be doing on the domestic power demand side." Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool