23-year-old Texas residents Brent Whitehead and Matt Lochstroh founded a company that mines bitcoins in oil fields. CNBC writes about it.
Their shipping containers with thousands of ASIC miners are located on oil wells in East Texas. natural gas released during drilling is fed into generators that will convert it into electricity to power equipment.
According to a study by Denver-based Crusoe Energy Systems, this process reduces CO2-equivalent emissions by about 63% compared to continuous flaring.
The idea for mining first came to Whitehead and Lochstroh in 2019, when they were sophomores at Texas A&M University. They invested money from part-time school work in the creation of Giga Energy Solutions. To find out an investing solution for yourself – head to bitcoin360ai
For many years, oil and gas companies have faced the problem of discovering natural gas reservoirs while drilling wells. To be able to sell the gas found, an additional pipeline is needed. However, in remote deposits, drillers have to burn it in torches. At the same time, such an installation can release up to 25% of methane into the atmosphere, polluting it.
In such conditions, the use of associated gas for electricity generation becomes the most effective – when it enters an engine or generator, 100% of methane burns without loss.
“As a child, I always saw gas torches and realized how wasteful it was. Our project allows not only to reduce emissions but also to monetize gas,” said Brent Whitehead.
According to him, Giga Energy Solutions has signed agreements with more than 20 oil and gas companies, four of which are traded on the stock exchange. They are also negotiating with sovereign wealth funds and targeting business expansion. Six additional employees will join the team of 11 during February 2022.
Lochstroh and Whitehead are betting that bitcoin mining has the potential to change the economics of the energy industry.
“Bitcoin is not controlled by anyone, and you don’t need to ask permission to use it,” said Matt Lochstroh.
According to entrepreneurs’ estimates, Giga Energy Solutions’ revenue in 2021 was more than $4 million. By the end of 2022, they expect to earn more than $20 million.
Lochstroh predicts that at the next stage, the energy companies themselves will start mining bitcoin.
We will remind you that in 2020, Gazprom Nafta opened the opportunity to use the energy from the processing of associated gas at the field in Khanty-Mansiysk for bitcoin mining.
In the same year, the Norwegian energy company Equinor Energy announced its readiness to send associated gas obtained during oil production at the Bakken field in the United States to electricity generation and bitcoin mining