Locator: 51651AI.
Chevron-Microsoft-BTM Power-The Permian-20-Year-Agreement-Pecos-Reeves County-Energy Forge One-Joulent
Energy Forge One: 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Joulent (a new energy company)
Kilby: a 50/50 joint venture between Energy Forge One and Chevron
This has been previously posted but might have been lost in all the clutter. This is a big, big deal.
It was first announced by Microsoft / Partner back on June 22, 2026, but seems to have been a sleeper. Considering the size of this project and novel financial / partnership features, it certainly didn't seem to get much press.
RBN Energy: how Chevron's Project Kilby aims to rewire the Permian Basin for the AI power era. Link here.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the global energy landscape faster than any technological shift in recent memory, but electricity has become the defining constraint. Chevron’s Project Kilby, a natural‑gas‑fired, behind‑the‑meter (BTM) power plant built specifically to supply a Microsoft‑operated data center under a 20‑year agreement, represents a strategic pivot for Chevron into a new business vertical: supplying hyperscale AI computing with dedicated energy infrastructure. In today’s RBN blog, we explain how this venture is a potential blueprint for how natural gas, land, water and industrial engineering could be combined to meet the demands of the AI era.
AI has strained the grid, interconnection queues stretch for years, renewable generation remains intermittent, and transmission buildout lags far behind demand. Hyperscalers need power now, at unprecedented scale, with reliability approaching that of mission‑critical industrial systems. In this environment, the companies that can deliver dedicated, dispatchable, high‑density electricity directly to compute infrastructure will define the next decade of digital growth.
Oil supermajor Chevron is forging the path to a solution by partnering with Microsoft to construct and deliver reliable, dedicated power for next-generation AI infrastructure in West Texas. Project Kilby is the first major initiative of Energy Forge One, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Joulent, an energy company formed in June to supply electricity directly to AI-focused data centers. (Joulent was founded by investment firm Engine No. 1 in collaboration with GE Vernova.) Daniel Droog, Chevron’s VP of Power, points out that data centers are not just a project, but a systems engineering challenge. Energy Forge One integrates land, energy, water, supply chains, community engagement and infrastructure, a level of development at scale that few companies can match. A final investment decision (FID) is expected by year-end 2026 with first power expected in 2028 and full capacity likely in 2031.
