Flared Gas Can Reduce Some Risks in Crypto Mining as Well as Oil and Gas Operations

Abstract

There are numerous risks associated with mining and owning cryptocurrencies, and exploring and producing oil and natural gas are highly risky, costly, and controversial. A marriage of digital mining and exploring and producing oil and natural gas has reduced the major risks and costs for both the crypto miner and the petroleum industry. On the one hand, crypto mining requires an enormous amount of electricity, which is not environmentally friendly. On the other hand, when drilling for petroleum resources, natural gas is often discovered, but due to a lack of resources or pipeline availability, a massive amount of natural gas is vented into the atmosphere or burned (called flaring). Today, however, this normally wasted gas (called stranded natural gas) is being used to create cheap electricity for mining server containers stationed near drilling rigs, which are used to create cryptocurrencies. This results in reduced CO2 emissions, lower costs for drillers, and greater royalties going to landowners.