International oil and gas giant ExxonMobil is running a pilot cryptocurrency mining program powered by excess natural gas from oil wells in North Dakota, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
The company has reportedly reached an agreement with Crusoe Energy Systems Inc., a company that provides solutions to the problem of natural gas flaring—to take gas from an oil well site in North Dakota to provide on-site power to crypto mining hardware for assets powered by a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism Bitcoin and the current iteration of Ethereum.
Excess natural gas from oil wells is commonly flared, which is burned off as waste, adding to greenhouse gas emissions. According to the report, the agreement between ExxonMobil and Crusoe Energy Systems will see that excess gas converted into electricity for use in cryptocurrency mining operations.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods recently revealed a pilot program that will use that excess natural gas to power cryptocurrency mining.
Speaking at the company’s meeting of shareholders, Woods said: “We are piloting a new project to utilize natural gas that was previously flared as a result of well completions.”
The two companies will reportedly use Crusoe’s proprietary technology for this purpose. The technology uses modular mobile units that deploy and operate at remote sites where infrastructure is not available.
According to Bloomberg, the company is about to begin building a pilot program that will use gas from an offshore drilling platform to generate electricity for bitcoin miners. They will be working in partnership with a firm called Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), which operates the New York Stock Exchange, according to the report. The oil and gas company is also reportedly considering similar pilot programs in the U.S. state of Alaska, Nigeria, Argentina, Guyana, and Germany.
“We continuously evaluate emerging technologies aimed at reducing flaring volumes across our operations,” ExxonMobile spokesperson Sarah Nordin reportedly told Bloomberg.
She also declined to comment on “rumors and speculations” regarding the mining project.
Main image: Oil rigs lined up in Los Angeles, USA Free Photo. Free Stock photos by Vecteezy
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