Oil Giant Exxon Is Piloting Bitcoin Mining With Excess Waste Gas

World’s 4th largest oil company Exxon is piloting some of the natural gas it has no use for to power crypto mining operations in North Dakota.

According to sources, the oil giant has partnered up with with Crusoe Energy Systems to redirect gas that would otherwise be wasted from an oil well pad to mobile Bitcoin (BTC) mines. The pilot project was launched in January last year, in North Dakota’s Bakken, and expanded in July. At the moment it consumes up to 18 million cubic feet of gas per month that would otherwise be wasted.

Exxon is already looking to set up similar ones in Alaska, Nigeria, Argentina, Guyana and Germany.

Sarah Nordin, Exxon spokesperson, commented on the pilot:

“We continuously evaluate emerging technologies aimed at reducing flaring volumes across our operations.”

According to Danielle Fugere, the president of environmental shareholder-activist group As You Sow:

“It is creating use of what would be otherwise wasted.”

Also it could be seen positively from the point of view of powering energy-intensive crypto mining operations with a source that would have been wasted otherwise.

Bakken hosts one of the largest oil and natural gas deposits in the United States. North Dakota has become the second largest oil-producing state in the country, following Texas.