ExxonMobil to use Bitcoin miners to capture flared gas?

Bitcoin mining is a way to capture energy value in the most eco-friendly way.

While some politicians still cling to Bitcoin’s “environmental” FUD despite its mining being the most green-powered industry in the world (58% coming from renewables), the reality shows just how useful crypto mining can become.

? Crypto mining is flexible and mobile, which makes it a great tool to catch the energy that would otherwise be wasted (50k TWh out of the total 155k TWh produced worldwide is lost due to inefficiencies), which in the mid-term can improve the countries’ energy grids. It can also capture the gas – byproduct of oil production, which is often too complicated and expensive to transport, so it is simply released (flared) into the atmosphere, emitting dangerous air pollutants like black carbon, methane, and volatile organic compounds.

⛏️ Many companies are installing crypto miners at oil fields now, but a recently reported interest from one of the world’s biggest oil and gas corporations – ExxonMobil – could certainly promote this practice to the forefront of the industry.

As per yesterday’s Bloomberg report, ExxonMobil would be running a pilot program to power Bitcoin mining operations using would-be wasted gas in its oil fields in North Dakota.

⛽ For the moment neither ExxonMobil, nor Crusoe Energy Systems, its alleged partner specializing in flared gas crypto mining, did not confirm the rumours. Whether they do it or not, however, oil specialists who still haven’t heard of this practice would have an important use case to study.

Learn more about mining and ecology here.