Permian gas prices negative 118 days; Chevron-Microsoft data center power deal emerges

Permian Basin natural gas has traded below zero for 118 days in 2026 due to oversupply and takeaway constraints. Chevron's Energy Forge One subsidiary signed a 20-year PPA with Microsoft to build a 2.67 GW gas-fired plant for a data center campus, with FID due by end-2026 and power in 2028. The deal is a single-county response, not a basin-wide solution, but signals growing demand from AI data centers.