The oil giant has entered into an agreement with Crusoe Energy Systems under which Gas is extracted from an oil well in the Bakken shale basin to power the mobile generators used to power the on-site bitcoin mining servers Shared, otherwise non-public information Blombergil Sources request anonymity.
Launched in January 2021 and expanded in July, the pilot project uses more than half a million cubic meters of gas per month that would otherwise have been burned in the absence of a suitable pipeline.
Exxon, the largest oil producer in the United States, is considering similar trials in Alaska, Nigeria, Argentina’s Vaca Muerta fields, Guyana and Germany.
A company spokesperson said Exxon was only responding to an invitation from the World Bank eliminate excess burning by 2030, That is, instead of combustion, try to use the natural gas produced as a by-product of something. Indeed, oil and gas producers are under increasing pressure from investors and regulators to reduce their carbon footprint.
During shale oil extraction, much of the excess gas is either burned off or released directly into the air. Natural gas consists mostly of methane, which is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. For this reason, Exxon certainly wants to stop burning the excess gas and use it, if possible, to power another activity. Since crypto operators needed cheap fuel, there was an opportunity for the company to sell the surplus to them.
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