Energy Giant Equinor to Cut Gas Flaring With Bitcoin Mining Tie-Up: Report

Publicly traded petroleum multinational Equinor is moving to significantly reduce natural gas flaring by mining cryptocurrency, according to screenshots from Equinor’s intranet received by Arcane Research Friday.

• A new strategic partnership will see the firm implement Denver, Colorado-based Crusoe Energy Systems’ digital flare mitigation technology.
• This converts waste natural gas – that would be otherwise released into the atmosphere – into electricity right at the wellsite.
• The operation will harness outflow at Equinor’s operations on the Bakken oilfield in North Dakota.
• “Historically, industry’s options for reducing flaring have been limited to costly measures like new infrastructure development or shutting in production,” reads the memo shared internally at Equinor.
• Crusoe’s digital flare mitigation “offers a win-win alternative for producers and investors alike,” it continued.
• In December 2019, the originally bootstrapped Crusoe announced $70 million in funding for expansion of its innovative flaring solutions.
• The round was led by Bain Capital and joined by Founders Fund, Winklevoss Capital and Polychain Capital.
• Before partnering with Equinor, Crusoe already operated flaring systems in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
• Equinor is a state-owned multinational based in Norway, that has been ranked as the 11th largest oil and gas firm globally.

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