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Elon building his own gas pipeline
Posted on 6/25/26 at 8:48 pm
Posted on 6/25/26 at 8:48 pm
quote:Oilprice.com
SpaceX has spent years trying to reinvent rockets. Now it's coming after midstream.
The aerospace giant plans to begin construction next month on an eight-mile natural gas pipeline dubbed "Starpipe" that will feed its Starbase launch facility in South Texas, according to filings reviewed by Reuters. The pipeline is expected to be operational by January and marks the latest step in Elon Musk's increasingly ambitious plan to control nearly every link in the Starship supply chain.
Starship burns liquid methane—a lot of it. Each launch consumes roughly 630,000 gallons, and today that fuel arrives by hundreds of tanker trucks in a logistical headache that's fine for a dozen launches but completely incompatible with Musk's vision of eventually launching hundreds, or even thousands, of Starships every year.
Pipelines solve that problem.
Engineering plans indicate that SpaceX also wants to build a liquefaction plant at Starbase to convert pipeline gas into liquid methane on-site. Company President Gwynne Shotwell recently confirmed SpaceX is also evaluating drilling its own natural gas in Texas, extending the company's vertical integration strategy from rockets and satellites to the energy that powers them.
It's a very Elon Musk move.
Why buy fuel when you can own the pipeline? Why just own the pipeline when you can own the gas field?
Whether SpaceX actually becomes an upstream natural gas producer is another question. Drilling wells is a very different business from building rockets, even if both involve spectacular explosions from time to time.
Still, the company has reportedly signed more than 100 oil and gas leases in Texas since 2023, suggesting this isn't merely an engineering thought experiment.
The timing also highlights an unexpected intersection between two industries that rarely share headlines. As data centers, AI infrastructure, LNG exports, and now commercial spaceflight all compete for reliable energy supplies, natural gas is quietly becoming the fuel behind far more than electricity generation.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
18
Posted on 6/25/26 at 8:49 pm to bigjoe1
Paying for your own energy infrastructure. This is the way.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 7:51 am to bigjoe1
Glad I bought some....
Posted on 6/26/26 at 8:02 am to bigjoe1
Instead of doing all of this, he can just use the same EV technology that TESLA uses.
Oh wait.
Oh wait.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 8:48 am to bigjoe1
A very elon thing to do? More people need to learn about vertical integration
Posted on 6/26/26 at 8:50 am to bigjoe1
if you have the money why not.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:12 am to bigjoe1
The LNG plant won't be much different than a nitrogen rejection unit which liquifies natural gas to allow the nitrogen, still a gas, to escape
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:18 am to jmarto1
quote:
More people need to learn about vertical integration
It will be heavily discussed over the next several years as companies use AI to bring more and more aspects of their business in-house.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:23 am to SaintsTiger
quote:
Instead of doing all of this, he can just use the same EV technology that TESLA uses.
To propel ships into space?
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:26 am to bigjoe1
Honestly, I find the most impressive thing about Elon to be how he gets people to be impressed by the most meaningless things.
People are seriously impressed by an 8 mile long gas pipeline? I already was dumbfounded about how people were impressed by how he was replicating our trips into space that we accomplished in the 1960s.
People are seriously impressed by an 8 mile long gas pipeline? I already was dumbfounded about how people were impressed by how he was replicating our trips into space that we accomplished in the 1960s.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:28 am to bigjoe1
Been his mantra since early days of Tesla, bring everything in house and control production/execution end to end.
Smart move on his part.
Smart move on his part.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:32 am to bigjoe1
quote:
eight-mile natural gas pipeline
Those are rookie numbers.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:43 am to bigjoe1
Yeah, when I opened this, I thought this was like pipeline that would several hundred miles or something.
They're also building powerlines for data centers in La. OMG
They're also building powerlines for data centers in La. OMG
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:52 am to bigjoe1
quote:
that's fine for a dozen launches but completely incompatible with Musk's vision of eventually launching hundreds, or even thousands, of Starships every year.
Seems to be pumping sunshine but if they're able to start launching half of these numbers then that is impressive.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 9:59 am to UFFan
quote:
People are seriously impressed by an 8 mile long gas pipeline?
They are?
Posted on 6/26/26 at 10:00 am to junkfunky
Yes. Did you read the OP? It's about Elon building a pipeline that's 8 miles long.
There's a pipeline in China that's more than 5,000 miles long, as a comparison.
There's a pipeline in China that's more than 5,000 miles long, as a comparison.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 10:04 am to RanchoLaPuerto
quote:
eight-mile natural gas pipeline
Posted on 6/26/26 at 10:54 am to bigjoe1
There are multiple LNG facilities going in on the ship channel next to them, this is a brilliant move to just tap into those instead of trucking it in.
Posted on 6/26/26 at 11:00 am to UFFan
quote:
People are seriously impressed by an 8 mile long gas pipeline? I already was dumbfounded about how people were impressed by how he was replicating our trips into space that we accomplished in the 1960s.
Show me some videos of our ships backing up and landing in the 60's.
The 2 eras are impressive for different reasons.
They did it in the 60's with the computing power less than an iPhone.
Elon is doing a lot more with a lot more. Well, the people working for him are but he is driving it.
plus Elon never was a nazi
Posted on 6/26/26 at 11:14 am to bigjoe1
Hopefully this goes better for them than it did for Delta.
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