[2019-03-29] Canadian Oil Companies are [Somehow] Mining Bitcoin

[gentlemand]

https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/03/29/bitcoin-the-unlikely-product-of-a-canadian-oil-mining-operation/

An interesting wee tale.

I presume in future whether there may well be multiple professional pop up mining operations that are ready descend on projects with energy going to waste. It must be happening in countless places around the world right now.

[bbc.reporter]

The article never said who was mining. However, if they are, I reckon they might not have a longterm roadmap that goes beyond 20 years, after 4 halvings.

Also, the additional costs will be a problem. Maybe they only partnered with an industrial mining farm to sell excess electricity.

[Theb]

By utilizing the natural gas, rather than flaring it as many oil fields do, the company is able to offset their operational costs by profitably employing a byproduct of oil mining that is typically wasted.

This could be a double-edged sword for us if this became a popular thing for gas companies to do as alternative to gas flaring, although at first "flaring" or what its usually called "gas flaring" looks like a bad thing for the environment it actually benefits the environment by reducing methane's contribution to global warming as it converts the gas to a less harmful gas called CO₂. By still using the natural gas to power up the mining equipment they are actually utilizing the methane which is potentially harmful to the environment.

[Betwrong]

By utilizing the natural gas, rather than flaring it as many oil fields do, the company is able to offset their operational costs by profitably employing a byproduct of oil mining that is typically wasted.

This could be a double-edged sword for us if this became a popular thing for gas companies to do as alternative to gas flaring, although at first "flaring" or what its usually called "gas flaring" looks like a bad thing for the environment it actually benefits the environment by reducing methane's contribution to global warming as it converts the gas to a less harmful gas called CO₂. By still using the natural gas to power up the mining equipment they are actually utilizing the methane which is potentially harmful to the environment.

I think they still burn the gas in the process though. I can't imagine any way of utilizing natural gas for Bitcoin mining other than burning it to heat water and produce steam which further turns a turbine to generate electricity. So basically they are burning gas to produce electricity instead of just wasting it by flaring, and so they are not causing more harm to the environment by doing that.

[veleten]

The article never said who was mining. However, if they are, I reckon they might not have a longterm roadmap that goes beyond 20 years, after 4 halvings.

Also, the additional costs will be a problem. Maybe they only partnered with an industrial mining farm to sell excess electricity.

maybe its just some Black Pearl Resources employee with 20 ASICS 
nothing concrete was said other than they are using potentially harmful gas to produce energy required for mining
as if just burning it in  huge torches is less harmful
this allows the company to reduce their gas output to below government regulation,  mine more oil and get some profit from mining
its a win win situation

[bbc.reporter]

@veleten. I reckon it would be very naive to expect that setting up a mining farm to get some additional profit would be easy. It might also add more to their losses.

[veleten]

@veleten. I reckon it would be very naive to expect that setting up a mining farm to get some additional profit would be easy. It might also add more to their losses.

they do say themselves that it , actually , reduces the costs of the oil extraction due to reducing  natural gas output below goverment regulation :
“It was the best option for us… We’re using it to bring ourselves below the government-regulated amount that we can vent on location and keep producing oil”
this is good for them , but instead of mining bitcoins and investing into the mining  rigs
they could have thought of a different scenario , guess mining bitcoins was the cheapest solution in their case
here it is more of "lets comply with the goverment's regulations on natural gas and keep our oil extraction 24/7 , while we mine some coins on the side "
rather than gaining profit from bitcoin mining

[1Referee]

I'm not sure to what extent these alternative mining solutions are being utilized, but it could makes sense if we look at how Bitcoin's hashrate fluctuates with a massive 10-15eh/s, and that consistently for months straight.

Right now we're on the lower side of 40eh/s as total network hashrate, where in a day or two we'll be seeing it jump back up to over 50eh/s to then fall back to 40eh/s. At this scale it isn't normal mining behavior, but very likely points at different uses for the power that's being utilized.

It's impossible to figure out who does what, but it's certainly an interesting topic to follow.

[Lanatsa]

@veleten. I reckon it would be very naive to expect that setting up a mining farm to get some additional profit would be easy. It might also add more to their losses.

When it comes to profit i dont really see for big oil companies would really be serious on jumping to bitcoin mining considering on the amounts of profits that they do generated with just producing natural gas would already be sufficient.They might just like to utilize their waste `into profits and thinking about possible losses they do already studied it out but it wont really be a big factor.

[Theb]

~snip~

I think they still burn the gas in the process though. I can't imagine any way of utilizing natural gas for Bitcoin mining other than burning it to heat water and produce steam which further turns a turbine to generate electricity. So basically they are burning gas to produce electricity instead of just wasting it by flaring, and so they are not causing more harm to the environment by doing that.

I have to stop you there, the thing is with flaring you completely convert the methane gas into CO₂. But if the unusable gas is use for other production it doesn't decimate the methane itself as it will still be use in electricity generation thus making a methane emission possible. The electricity generation is not the main culprit here but the process behind on making it as typically not all of the methane gas is utilize and some of it escapes in our environment during the process.

[bbc.reporter]

@veleten. I reckon it would be very naive to expect that setting up a mining farm to get some additional profit would be easy. It might also add more to their losses.

they do say themselves that it , actually , reduces the costs of the oil extraction due to reducing  natural gas output below goverment regulation :
“It was the best option for us… We’re using it to bring ourselves below the government-regulated amount that we can vent on location and keep producing oil”
this is good for them , but instead of mining bitcoins and investing into the mining  rigs
they could have thought of a different scenario , guess mining bitcoins was the cheapest solution in their case
here it is more of "lets comply with the goverment's regulations on natural gas and keep our oil extraction 24/7 , while we mine some coins on the side "
rather than gaining profit from bitcoin mining

I am a cycnic. I reckon it would be cheapest for them to pay a corrupt regulator from the government to leave them alone hehehe.

In any case, why fix the problem by making another problem?

Also, does the oil company have the infrastructure to convert the natural gas to electricity or will that be another problem?