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The United States is about to produce a lot more natural gas—enough to power new artificial intelligence data centers and ship overseas—and the biggest pipeline companies are scrambling to build the infrastructure to handle it. This week, a major pipeline company called Oneok bought a smaller competitor's assets for $4.42 billion. Similar mega-deals have happened recently: Williams spent $5.5 billion on another smaller company, and Western Midstream paid $1.6 billion for additional facilities. These aren't isolated incidents—they're part of a wave of larger companies buying out smaller ones to consolidate the industry and position themselves for what's coming next.
The U.S. natural gas industry has already exploded over the past 20 years. Production has more than doubled since 2006, and the U.S. now produces about a quarter of the world's natural gas—almost twice as much as Russia, which is second. The country also leads the world in exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG, which is natural gas that's been cooled into a liquid for shipping), despite only starting this export business 10 years ago. Looking ahead, government projections say U.S. natural gas output could jump another 35% by 2050 as more AI data centers open and more LNG export facilities are built in Texas and Louisiana. Pipeline companies like Oneok aren't just buying these assets randomly—they're buying the entire supply chain: gathering lines that pull gas from the ground, processing plants that clean it up, and pipelines that transport it to where it's needed. The Oneok deal included 700 miles of gathering lines and the ability to process 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day. Oneok's CEO said the company is constantly talking to data center developers about their energy needs, and many are looking to Texas specifically because of the abundant natural gas there.