Jordan Blum, editorial director, Hart Energy: We are here at Hart Energy's, DUG Appalachia Conference in Pittsburgh. I'm joined by Ravi Srivastava, president of new technologies for CNX Resources. Thank you so much for being here. We're talking all things data centers, power demand. I just wanted to start things off getting your opinion on just really how big of a deal this is going to be for domestic power demand in terms of actual increases. Most of the talk's about data centers and ai, but it's obviously more than that as well.

Ravi Srivastava, president of new technologies, CNX Resources: Yeah, so first of all, I think AI data center, these are opportunities of a lifetime, opportunities like generational opportunities here. So I think every bit of focus, every bit of rigor that we can put behind to make sure these industries, these opportunities are successful, we have to do that. And at the core of that, to make any data center work to make the AI technology work, what they need is power. So I think rightly so, to make the technology commercial, to make the technology better, there's a humongous demand for power. I think every day I get an updated email with an updated forecast for, 'Hey, our last forecast was wrong. We're going to need even more power than what we said in our last forecast.' So not a day goes by where these forecasts are getting adjusted. And at the same time, these AI data center demands going up and the policy is pushing for electrification of everything else, whether it's transportation, whether it's buildings, whether it's, you name it. And that's all that stuff is putting a lot of pressure on the grid. And we see natural gas as the natural solution to be able to address that demand in the short term, in the long term. I think it's a tried and tested, proven way of addressing this demand. Whether the pace is slow, fast, whatever it is. I think the operators here, like CNX, we stand ready to be able to answer that call.

JB: How challenging is it or not to convince technology companies and everybody building these projects that natural gas is lower emission? It is not just reliable and affordable, but a sustainable approach?

RS: I mean, that's a great question. So again, if you look at the last 20 years and the energy transition that's taken place, and natural gas is playing a much bigger role in all forms of energy utilization, whether it's in some form of transportation, power generation, industrial uses. And that single handedly has offset more CO2 emissions from U.S. atmosphere or global atmosphere than a lot of other technologies combined, right? So natural gas is a very well established solution from a low carbon intensity standpoint. And then on top of that, this particular region, we're passionate about Appalachia. We're passionate about opportunities here, Marcellus and Utica Shale, a number of studies have shown that the lowest carbon intensity or emission intensity gas is produced in this region. And then you take it a step further where we're not stopping at that. We're not sitting idle that, yeah, this basin is great and we're going to stop doing anything from this point onwards.

The focus from CNX and a lot of other operators is to just keep driving that emission intensity lower, and a lot of investments are being made into technology and solutions. CNX is developing proprietary technology to decarbonize this value chain, and we've been able to get into numerous JVs and commercialize some of these solutions to not only decarbonize that value chain for ourselves but for our peers. And then we're also proud of our waste gas capture program where this is waste methane that would've gone into the atmosphere. So that is also a solution that we provide as a feedstock for this power generation. So there are numerous ways to address the sustainability needs that a data center outfit might have for a low carbon solution for the power generation. And from a resiliency standpoint, I just can't see any other solution that even comes close in terms of being able to provide a resilient feedstock that can deliver power with the reliability that natural gas can.

JB: Very good. You touched on it some, but can you elaborate a bit on just some of the technologies you're most excited about in terms of lowering emissions?

RS: So we have developed this proprietary technology and we've gotten to a JV with an oilfield services company here called Deep Well Services and our AutoSep technology, what that allows us to do is take emissions. It's a closed loop, high pressure flowback solution where a lot of emissions, a lot of methane goes into the atmosphere during some of these completions and flowback processes. But our solution is a closed loop process that allows us to conduct all this stuff, all the routine parts of this operation without avoiding any methane going into the atmosphere. So there is emission reduction that's happening by virtue of using this technology. And then the technology also allows us to harness this natural gas and separate solids and liquids from a high pressure gas stream. So energy that's typically wasted in an oil and gas process, we are able to harness that energy and convert that into power. So to address other power needs that we might have on the location or do other things with it. So all that helps reduce the mission intensity of the operations further. That's just one example. We also have ZeroHP CNG technology, micro LNG technology that we have developed on that uses the technology at its core. I could talk at length. Depends on how much time we have.

JB: Well, it's all about being part of this solution. Well, no, thank you so much for being here in Pittsburgh. We really appreciate it. To read and watch more, please visit online at HartEnergy.com.

Comments