Since January 2021, Exxon has been testing a pilot project to use excess gas produced by the company in North Dakota in the United States. The fuel, which the oil company would have burned, is now being used in a bitcoin mining project.
Without any means of disposing of excess natural gas production in the American state, Exxon had been burning the fuel up until then due to a lack of pipelines. However, a partnership with Crusoe Energy Systems Inc allows the fuel to be used to generate revenue for the company.
The project was expanded in July 2021, and Exxon currently allocates 18 million cubic feet of natural gas to mine cryptoassets. Considered the largest oil producer in the United States, the company plans to start the same project in four other locations.
Besides North Dakota, Exxon can use natural gas production to mine bitcoins in Alaska (USA), Nigeria, Germany, and Argentina through a shale field.
Exxon has an agreement with the U.S. central bank to stop the flaring of surplus natural gas by 2030. According to the North Dakota Division of Air Quality’s permitting program manager, Craig Thorstenson, about 10 percent of natural gas production in the state is disposed of.
As a result, bitcoin can help the oil company achieve the environmental goal agreed upon with the U.S. central bank by using the fuel to supply a cryptoasset mining system.
In addition to mining activity, bitcoin may soon be used as a payment currency for large-scale natural gas sales. Recently, Russia announced that it intends to adopt the digital currency in fuel sales to other countries.
