Elon Musk has bet big on Texas. The SpaceX billionaire recently announced he had moved to Lone Star State, which is also home to one of his SpaceX launchpads and a forthcoming Tesla factory. But Musk also has his eye on one of the state’s old-school cash cows: fossil fuels.
Sergio Chapa is following the story for Bloomberg News, where he reports on the energy industry. He told Texas Standard that instead of drilling a transit tunnel, as his Boring Company is doing in Los Angeles, Musk intends to drill for natural gas at the Boca Chica site where he has launched a number of SpaceX rockets.
“All these rockets and all these testings require fuel, which can be made from liquid oxygen or liquefied natural gas,” Chapa said.
He says a Musk subsidiary bought 806 acres of natural gas leases near the Boca Chica launch site.
SpaceX hasn’t made an official announcement about drilling plans. But contractors affiliated with SpaceX did reveal during a hearing before the Texas Railroad Commission – the state agency that regulates the Texas oil and gas industry – that it intended to use fuel extracted at Boca Chica to power its spacecraft.
