Excess Natural Gas in Midland/Odessa Could Turn Into Bitcoin Mining

MOTRAN, the Midland/Odessa Transportation Alliance, is looking to the future and looking to get rid of flares and use the unwanted gas to be used for bitcoin mining.

According to NewsWest 9, bitcoin mining could become a huge part of the oil and gas industry if the excess natural gas that is being burned up in flares could be used to mine bitcoin.

"Instead of sending gas to a flare, send it to an engine to create electricity which we can then mine bitcoin from. So it's a real opportunity to reduce emissions in the oil field," said Kat Galloway, CEO of Artemis Energy.

The natural gas waste could be burned to produce power for servers that can be used to mine bitcoin.

"Bitcoin needs energy, right? [So] we need to find the cheapest energy that we can. The oil field has emissions and they want to get rid of those emissions, so we work together and I really see that bitcoin mining and the oilfield are working together because they're solving each other's problems," said Galloway.

That would make the Permian Basin the ideal place to set up bitcoin mining huts and with bitcoin becoming more and more valuable, that provides a lot of opportunities here.

"Where we're at right now is that the bitcoin market is making the projects profitable, so three years ago it might not have been profitable at all because bitcoin was not $40,000, $50,000, $60,000,"  said Galloway. "So it wasn't necessarily on the radar but now that we're seeing bitcoin prices come up into the $40,000's or greater, the projects make a lot more sense and people want to be involved in it."

This is a good way to bring in new jobs and enhance the economy of the Permian Basin and get into the newest industry that is taking off right now.

"This is a way to cross-train people, get more electricians, pumpers, construction. There's a big market for new jobs directly in this industry," said Galloway.

So there may be bitcoin mining areas springing up locally soon.