ExxonMobil, the United States-based oil and gas producer, is planning to extend a previous pilot program that is established in the North Dakota oil wells to power Bitcoin miners using energy generated from the excess amount of gas produced, instead of burning it off because there aren’t enough pipelines to process the whole extracted gas.
Regulators and investors are increasingly putting more pressure on oil and gas producers to reduce their carbon footprint to help reduce climate change. That includes reducing the amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is released from the gas they burn off or flare.
We continuously evaluate emerging technologies aimed at reducing flaring volumes across our operations.
Sarah Nordin, ExxonMobil spokeswoman.
The original North Dakota gas-to-bitcoin project that was launched in January 2021 is operated with the cooperation with Crusoe Energy Systems Inc. to use up about 18 million cubic feet of gas per month to power Exxon Mobil Corp. crypto mining rigs.
ExxonMobil gas-to-bitcoin project sites
The company is going to build new similar pilots in new five sites around the world. The new program branches are in Alaska, the Qua Iboe Terminal in Nigeria, Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale field, Guyana, and Germany
According to CoinShares, 69 TWh of wasted power in the USA is lost every year in flaring excess gas; Crusoe Energy established 60 crypto mining sites across four U.S. states, as of September 2021, powered by gas from the oil wells that reduces about 63% carbon dioxide emissions that are produced from flaring.
3/ @CoinSharesCo estimates that 69 TWh of wasted power in the U.S. is lost annually to flaring
— Messari (@MessariCrypto) March 6, 2022
Through #Bitcoin mining data centers, like those provided by @CrusoeEnergy & @upstreamdatainc, wasted flared energy can be repurposed but it can also reduce CO2 emissions. pic.twitter.com/2XjeFynrI7
