Orcadian Terminates UK Offshore Data Center Development Deal

Orcadian Energy and an unnamed U.S. offshore data center developer have terminated an agreement to jointly develop an offshore energy-to-compute project using gas resources from Orcadian's Earlham and Orwell discoveries in UK waters.

The companies ended the agreement because the development scope and timeline for Earlham did not align with the U.S. developer's near-term deployment priorities, Orcadian said.

The Earlham Gigagrid concept envisages using gas resources within Orcadian's P2680 license to provide power and infrastructure for offshore computing capacity, disconnected from the UK electricity grid and designed to minimize Scope 3 emissions.

Orcadian previously said the proposed scheme was intended to enable development of an offshore data center ‘of real scale in UK waters’, with the potential partner acting as the offshore compute platform developer, owner or financier of the computing hardware and seller of contracted computing capacity.

Earlham and Orwell have estimated combined 2C contingent resources of 145 billion cubic feet of gas as of January 1, 2026, comprising 114 Bcf at Earlham and 31 Bcf at Orwell. The estimates were internally generated and have not been independently verified.

The joint development agreement, signed on September 2, established a 90-day process for due diligence, commercial validation and negotiation of a definitive Earlham and Orwell energy-to-compute transaction.

Its exclusivity option was never exercised, no exclusivity fee was agreed or paid, and neither party owes any amounts as a result of the termination. Orcadian retains 100% of license P2680.

“This particular agreement has not progressed, but the work we did together has materially advanced our understanding of what an offshore compute development at Earlham would require.

“Our view of the opportunity is undiminished, and we continue to engage with a number of other potential partners,” said Steve Brown, Orcadian CEO.

Orcadian added the Earlham Gigagrid remains at an early stage and is subject to further concept selection and validation work. The company continues to engage with other potential partners on the project.