Russian oil company Gazpromneft recently added an unusual feature to its Siberian oil drilling field: a functioning Bitcoin mining farm, writes CoinDesk. According to the quoted source, the company started using its excess carbon dioxide emissions as an energy source for cryptographic mining platforms. The goal is to turn wasted energy into a profitable cryptocurrency.
Excess flammable gases are released during the oil drilling process. Given that all heat and energy is wasted, Gazpromneft’s plan is to use it by converting excess heat into electricity and using it to generate cryptocurrencies.
Bloomberg writes that last year, US gas companies had already begun to open similar facilities, using the surplus energy from gas disposal to power data centers that included Bitcoin farms.
So far, the system seems to be working: a Russian cryptocurrency company using the facility has generated 1.8 Bitcoin in a month. That’s about $ 50,000, burning 49,500 cubic meters of excess gas in the process.
