Oil and Gas Giant ConocoPhillips Has Indirectly Entered Bitcoin Mining

On February 15, oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips has indirectly entered the bitcoin mining business.

According to CNBC, the company has launched a bitcoin pilot project in Bakken, North Dakota, through which it sells gas to bitcoin mining farms run by third parties.

According to the Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS), the Bakken has one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the United States, a phenomenon that led to the "Bakken Oil Boom" that made North Dakota the second-largest producer in the United States Oil state, second only to Texas.

ConocoPhillips is an international energy company headquartered in the Energy Corridor region of Houston, Texas, USA. It is one of the Fortune 500 and the 5th largest private energy company in the world. The company launched a bitcoin pilot program to sell gas to bitcoin miners in the Bakken, a setup that allows the company to monetize gas that would otherwise be wasted, while reducing carbon emissions and enabling bitcoin miners to access cheap energy.

It is not uncommon to mine Bitcoin with excess natural gas. EZ Blockchain, a Chicago-based mining company, plans to mine bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from excess natural gas produced in the Permian Basin (located in western Texas). In addition, in May last year, North American bitcoin miners partnered with oil drillers to mine bitcoin from excess natural gas. Because oil and natural gas often come from the same well, when drillers extract oil, the natural gas is wasted in the combustion process. Natural gas is a by-product of the oil extraction process, explains Steve Degenfelder, manager of the Kirkwood Oil & Gas Company in Wyoming. This approach actually reduces waste in the oil and gas (O&G) sector.

In fact, not only the United States, but many other regions around the world are also considering the use of petroleum gas and other related products to mine cryptocurrencies. According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, in October last year, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank were discussing a project by Rosneft to use LPG-related products to mine cryptocurrencies in its oil fields. Russia's Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade also asked other Russian ministries and the central bank for their opinion in a letter dated Sept. 7. (Golden Finance)