US-based Riverway Group and Offshore Data Center have entered into a partnership to design and construct offshore data centre platforms along the US Gulf Coast.
The installations will convert stranded and undervalued natural gas into electrical power for computing facilities co-located directly at offshore fuel reserves.
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The initiative aims to provide energy producers with a mechanism to monetise gas assets that are uneconomic under standard development models, including natural gas reinjected beyond reservoir pressure maintenance requirements.
Offshore Data Center designs encompass facilities of up to 1GW suited for large-scale AI training, alongside smaller, lower-cost configurations engineered for edge and inference computing deployments.
According to the partners, rather than transporting fuel to land to feed utility grids, the offshore installations will house generation equipment alongside modular, liquid-cooled graphics processing units and central processing units directly at the gas source.
The structures also incorporate proprietary closed-loop deep-ocean cooling systems.
Because cooling demands can account for up to 40% of an operational data centre’s energy consumption, drawing on cold deep-sea water is designed to lower that thermal burden while improving power-generation efficiency.
Offshore Data Center CEO Art Schroeder said: “A significant amount of offshore gas is never developed, or is simply reinjected, because getting it to market doesn’t pencil out.
“By putting the data centre next to the gas, we eliminate the pipeline to shore and the transmission line, and we cut the cooling bill dramatically. Riverway gives us a way to build these platforms here in the US.”
Construction of the vessels will combine Riverway’s automated welding and fabrication systems with proprietary semi-submersible hull engineering licensed from HORTON DO BRASIL TECNOLOGIA OFFSHORE LTDA.
The partners stated that this approach creates a hull that is up to 50% lighter than standard designs, providing enhanced stability and making US Gulf Coast construction cost-competitive with shipbuilders in China, Singapore and South Korea.
Beyond digital infrastructure, the heavy-load platform decks can accommodate conventional production hardware or facilities for ammonia and methanol synthesis if project requirements favour those applications.
Offshore Data Center is collaborating with equipment and service contractors to provide complete end-to-end systems.
The companies anticipate that building and operating the floating facilities will expand domestic AI computing capacity, assist US maritime fabrication, support domestic energy extraction, and generate tax revenue and employment.
