Cryptocurrency Meets Oil & Gas Industry
With the cryptocurrency market gaining greater traction over the years, cryptocurrency miners face an increasing challenge to supply enough power to their mining rigs to not only maintain, but also potentially increase their scale. While traditionally, miners would often set up stationary operations for mining cryptocurrency on their own, some may have opted to go through a data center colocation route that allows these miners to store and run their equipment within a data center for a fee. Recently, a new trend within the industry has provided both flexibility and mobility to crypto mining operations that can help meet the large demands of power required in mining and these are known as mining container.
A simple explanation of a mining container is a cryptocurrency mining system set inside a trailer or shipping container full of mining rigs or supercomputers configured to mine for cryptocurrency, natural gas generator, and gas pipes. These trailers are on portable and can be towed from location to location, enabling ease of access to move to different sites to meet insanely high power demands.
How Does This Relate to the Oil & Gas Field?
Oil and gas companies that are drilling for crude oil often run into a specific challenge when conducting operations and the challenge is hitting a natural gas formation. This is because oil & natural gas often come from the same or nearby wells that may be dug accidentally or may be released while digging for oil. In the past, this was considered a huge loss since traditionally – these oil companies would have to burn off the gas, also knowing as flaring to be as environmentally friendly as possible. If these oil & gas companies did not flare the gas, then their other option would be to “vent” it. Venting is a strategy that allows the methane to release into the air but is often considered a bad choice as released methane causes greenhouse effects that are worse than carbon dioxide. Therefore, most oil & gas companies would flare the gas which produces carbon dioxide to reduce methane emissions being released into the atmosphere. While this may be considered a more environmentally friendly choice, this does come with its own shortcomings. Gas flares are considered to only be about 75% to 90% efficient, as even when flaring gas – not all the methane is being combusted. This is where mobile mining containers come into play.
In situations where oil drillers encounter a formation of natural gas, these mining containers can be stationed at these pockets to harvest the gas into the natural gas generator installed within the mining rig. The natural gas then runs and produces electricity which helps to power the crypto mining system within the trailer.
Why Don’t Oil & Gas Companies Harvest the Gas Released?
Usually if there is a gas well discovered that isn’t stationed near an existing pipeline, the cost can’t be justified to invest the time and effort to construct an entirely new gas line. When oil and gas companies are drilling for oil, they can easily harvest, load, and truck the crude oil away from the dig site. In turn when they hit a natural gas formation, they are usually ill-equipped to safely harvest the gas with their existing drilling equipment out in the field and transport it out. The gas is considered “stranded” and the result is seen as money wasted, as these companies are then forced to flare the gas to prevent it from venting. Therefore, mobile mining containers for cryptocurrency plays a major role in making use of any stranded gas formations that may be found out in the field.
Weighing Out Benefits
When examining the benefits for using a mobile mining rig to mine for cryptocurrency and the benefits are huge.
When the natural gas generator uses the stranded gas out in the field, the result is 100% of methane is combusted vs the 75% – 90% combustion rate with flaring. This results in a slightly more environmentally friendly result.
Using a mobile mining container enables cryptocurrency miners to answer one of their greatest challenges and that is cheap electricity. Costs are considerably lower when compared to a regulated distributed utility like the city power grid.
These mobile mining operations are considered a win for both cryptocurrency miners and oil & gas companies since there is no waste of natural gas formations when drilling while also creating an additional revenue stream when working with cryptocurrency miners, so this becomes a mutually beneficial endeavor for both parties.
While the benefits are clear with mobile mining rigs for cryptocurrency miners as well as oil & gas companies, it is also important to consider that cryptocurrency mining produces its own emissions. While mining rigs reduce the need to vent or flare gas to help prevent methane emissions, carbon dioxide is still being produced. While carbon dioxide may not be as harmful to the environment as methane, there are still emissions being produced and released into the atmosphere and should be considered.
Closing Thoughts
There is a lot more involved when it comes to cryptocurrency mining containers used in the oil and gas industry with many more opportunities being created regularly. Since the inception, there are many cryptocurrency companies working together with oil & gas companies to create new business plans and models to work together mutually. As the market continues to grow and evolve, many more designs, ideas, and plans may result from this market. While there may be increasing challenges that need to be solved, this may be an option that can continue to be expanded in the future.
If you’re looking to find out more on generators in cryptocurrency mining containers for oil & gas fields, please reach out to us at Woodstock Power Company!
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