Orcadian Energy plc has agreed an assessment of an offshore energy-to-compute data platform, using gas from the Earlham and Orwell prospects in the UK southern North Sea.
The 90-day, non-exclusive, joint development agreement, with an unnamed American “developer of offshore data centre infrastructure”, will allow due diligence, commercial evaluation and negotiation of a definitive transaction.
The American partner also has the option to secure exclusivity, subject to payment of a fee.
Orcadian said: “The Earlham gigagrid concept provides power and infrastructure to support the deployment of the partner’s technology, disconnected from the UK grid, and which is designed to minimise Scope 3 emissions.
“The directors believe the concept has the potential to deliver competitive power costs, subject to the validation work to be undertaken during the 90-day period.”
Scope 3 emissions cover indirect greenhouse gas emissions across a company’s value chain, from upstream to downstream. In the energy sector, the majority refer to methane and carbon dioxide released by the company and its customers.
As at the start of 2026, Earlham and Orwell contain an estimated combined 2C contingent resources of 145 billion cubic feet, with 114 bcf and 31 bcf respectively.
Orcadian added it intended to commission a competent person’s report during the 90 days.
If the agreement is signed, the partner’s exclusivity would run until 1 March 2027, during which time it aims to “develop the offshore compute platform, own or finance the compute hardware, and sell contracted compute capacity to customers”.
“We are delighted to be working with our new partner to design a scheme to utilise the gas resources in our licence to enable the development of an offshore data centre of real scale in UK waters,” said chief executive officer Steve Brown.
“Our partner has developed a new approach to the deployment of compute in the offshore setting and would be a natural customer for the power that the Earlham gigagrid concept can generate.”
Data (Image: Gerd Altmann – from Pixabay)