ConocoPhilips, the world’s largest oil company, decreases gas flaring emissions using Bitcoin mining
ConocoPhilips, the oil and gas giant, has joined the Bitcoin mining market in an effort to cut carbon emissions financially.
ConocoPhilips, the world’s largest oil and gas company, is dabbling with Bitcoin (BTC) mining in order to stop the wasteful habit of flaring.
According to CNBC, the business is presently testing a pilot programme in North Dakota’s oil-rich Bakken area. Rather of burning extra gas, a byproduct of oil drilling known as flaring, the business is selling it as fuel to a third-party Bitcoin miner.
Concerning the environmental effect of “regular flaring,” a business spokesman indicated that the firm’s choice to enter Bitcoin mining mirrored the company’s larger goal of lowering and eventually eliminating routine flaring by 2030.
ConocoPhillips indicated in a slide from a 2021 presentation that it has a “ongoing effort” on ensuring that gas capture projects achieve 0% regular flaring by 2025.
Bitcoin mining is a novel and lucrative way to address the issue of frequent flaring, which happens when mining firms strike natural gas deposits while drilling for oil.
While oil may be extracted and collected anywhere, extracting natural gas needs pipeline infrastructure. If miners encounter natural gas at a substantial distance from a pipeline, firms are obliged to burn or “flare” the gas, which is ultimately unprofitable and ecologically damaging.
Rather of wasting the gas, Bitcoin miners position shipping containers or trailers with crypto mining equipment near an oil well and reroute it into generators that run the machine.
ConocoPhillips did not specify whose Bitcoin miner it was selling to or the duration of the exploratory experiment.
Crusoe Energy, another US-based oil and gas explorer, has also used Bitcoin mining to economically reduce emissions, powering around 60 data centres and Bitcoin mining equipment with diverted natural gas from its oil fields. According to Argus media, Crusoe Energy’s method reduces CO2-equivalent emissions by up to 63% when compared to conventional flaring.
Miners have been more interested with discovering new ways to capture more sustainable forms of energy in response to widely-circulated complaints about Bitcoin mining, which mostly stem from environmental concerns.
The Bitcoin Mining Council anticipated that the worldwide industry’s sustainable energy mix will be 58.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021. In Norway, miners are even using waste heat to dry timber.
Also Read: Black Americans Are Urged To Increase Their Cryptocurrency Investments
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