New West Data Eyes Alberta Oil Deal to Power AI and Bitcoin Mining Expansion
New West Data plans to acquire oil and gas assets in Central Alberta in a deal that would more than triple its production base and double the off-grid power capacity it uses to run digital infrastructure, including Bitcoin mining and potentially high-density AI compute.
The Calgary-based company said on Tuesday it signed a letter of intent with Azimuth Capital Management to acquire Entrada Resources Inc., which owns oil and gas production assets near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. The proposed transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to financing, regulatory and shareholder approvals.
The acquisition would add about 3,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) to New West Data’s existing 1,000 BOE/d production profile, bringing total output to roughly 4,500 BOE/d. It would also add about 2,000 barrels per day of oil and liquids production, lifting the company’s total oil and liquids output to approximately 2,300 bbl/d.
More central to New West Data’s infrastructure strategy, the assets are expected to provide enough stranded natural gas to support an additional 20 megawatts of off-grid compute power capacity. That would bring the company’s proprietary power generation capacity to 35 MW.
New West Data’s model is built around using gas that otherwise faces limited pipeline egress or potential flaring constraints to generate power on-site for modular computing infrastructure. The company said it has spent the past six years deploying that model at oil wells where natural gas transport is constrained.
“For six years, we’ve proven that the best way to maximize the profitability of oil wells with natural gas egress issues is to bring the compute to the energy source,” Sean McDonough, New West Data’s president and chief executive officer, said in the announcement.
McDonough told TheEnergyMag that the Rocky Mountain House assets are already profitable from oil sales, which gives the company a financial base to support its behind-the-meter expansion.
“Because the sites are so concentrated, we believe we’ll be able to use the natural gas to power the additional 20 MW of power capacity across one or two sites, which will give us adequate scale to power a combination of bitcoin mining and high-density HPC and AI compute,” McDonough said.
The planned acquisition underscores a broader shift among energy and compute operators seeking to pair power generation directly with data infrastructure. Grid-connected data center projects across North America are facing rising interconnection constraints and multi-year timelines for power access, while off-grid and behind-the-meter models aim to bypass some of those bottlenecks by locating compute directly at the energy source.
New West Data said it intends to deploy off-grid power generation and data center infrastructure across the Rocky Mountain House footprint and bring new compute capacity online in nine months after closing.
The company’s planned use of the additional capacity would not be limited to Bitcoin mining. McDonough said New West Data plans to build both Bitcoin and HPC/AI infrastructure at the new sites, secure an anchor tenant for the HPC/AI portion, increase profitability, and then expand from there.
Bitcoin mining, however, will remain a core part of the business, he said.
“While we plan to unlock a new revenue stream in the AI sector, bitcoin mining remains a foundational pillar of our business,” McDonough said. “Its flexibility allows us to easily deploy across a wide variety of geographic locations.”
The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction. If completed, the deal would also give Azimuth the right to appoint two directors to New West Data’s board.
