BLM Approves Green Chile Gas Pipeline for New Mexico Data Center
The BLM approved the Green Chile Natural Gas Pipeline in New Mexico using an accelerated review process, advancing a 400 million cubic feet per day line tied to a proposed data center project.
(P&GJ) — The Bureau of Land Management has approved a right-of-way for the Green Chile Natural Gas Pipeline in southern New Mexico, advancing a proposed 400 million cubic feet per day pipeline tied to a planned data center development in Doña Ana County.
The approval allows the project to cross approximately 16 miles of federal land under an accelerated 14-day environmental review process conducted by the Department of the Interior.
The proposed pipeline would transport natural gas from an existing El Paso Natural Gas system connection to serve Project Jupiter, a planned private-sector data center development in the region.
BLM said it is finalizing right-of-way authorizations with Transwestern Pipeline Company, which would construct and operate the 24-inch buried pipeline once approvals are completed.
The project includes a permanent 50-foot right-of-way corridor along with temporary workspace areas that would be used during construction. Federal officials said disturbed land would be restored as closely as possible to pre-construction conditions after the pipeline is installed.
The Green Chile Pipeline is one of several recent infrastructure projects tied to rising energy demand from large-scale data center development, which has become a growing source of natural gas and power demand across multiple U.S. regions.
Transwestern Pipeline Company is owned by Energy Transfer and operates interstate natural gas pipeline infrastructure across the Southwest and western United States.
Previous State Setback
The project previously faced a regulatory setback in April when the New Mexico State Land Office denied access to a portion of state trust land needed for part of the proposed route.
The denial affected roughly 0.63 miles of the planned 16-mile pipeline and forced Energy Transfer to evaluate alternative routing options. State officials said the proposal did not satisfy requirements tied to the use of trust lands, adding uncertainty to the project’s timeline as federal permitting reviews continued.
FERC Review and Project Scope
Energy Transfer first filed the Green Chile Project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) earlier this year under the agency’s blanket certificate process.
According to the filing, the proposed 16-mile pipeline would connect to the El Paso Natural Gas system and deliver up to 400,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas to Green Chile Ventures, the sole contracted shipper on the line.
The approximately $60 million project is designed to supply fuel for natural gas-fired turbines supporting a planned AI-focused data center campus in New Mexico. The filing highlighted growing power demand tied to large-scale artificial intelligence and data center development across the United States.