Oman’s Oil Companies to Mine Bitcoin with Excessive Gas

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Alex Dovb­nya

Oman’s sov­er­eign wealth fund was among investors who took part in Cru­soe Ener­gy’s recent fund­ing round 

Oman Invest­ment Author­i­ty, a sov­er­eign wealth fund, par­tic­i­pat­ed in the $350 mil­lion Series C fund­ing round of Cru­soe Ener­gy, the Den­ver-based com­pa­ny that pio­neered cut­ting gas flar­ing with the help of cryp­tocur­ren­cy min­ing, Bloomberg reports.

Cru­soe Ener­gy CEO Chase Lochmiller says that the com­pa­ny will open an office in Mus­cat, the cap­i­tal of Oman, in order to cap­ture flared gas and use it for mining.

The term “gas flar­ing” refers to burn­ing exces­sive gas asso­ci­at­ed with oil extrac­tion. The prac­tice rou­tine­ly faces crit­i­cism from envi­ron­men­tal activists since it a major source of green­house gas emissions.

While Cru­soe Ener­gy claims that it can great­ly reduce emis­sions relat­ed to flar­ing, it is still far from being the dar­ling of cli­mate activists since the process of Bit­coin min­ing itself is a very ener­gy-inten­sive busi­ness that sig­nif­i­cant­ly relies on fos­sil fuels.

In March, U.Today report­ed that Cru­soe Ener­gy had joined forces with U.S. ener­gy behe­moth Exxon­Mo­bil in order to work on a pilot project that would sup­ply flared gas to Bit­coin miners.

Cru­soe Ener­gy also has Cana­di­an oil firm Ener­plus and Okla­homa City-based Devon Ener­gy among its clients.

It is expect­ed to kick­start its first gas-for-Bit­coin pilot project in Oman next year.

The price of Bit­coin is down 31.29% on a year-to-date basis, but  Lochmiller says that the big cor­rec­tion will not affect the com­pa­ny’s ambi­tious expan­sion plans.

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