Bengal Energy to Mine Bitcoin Using Abandoned Gas Wells in the Australian Outback
Bengal Energy, a Canadian oil and gas mining company, is getting ready to start a trial project using portable Bitcoin mining rigs to access previously abandoned gas wells.
Bengal Energy Enters Pilot Program for Bitcoin Mining
Bengal Energy, a Canadian oil and gas business, is dabbling in Bitcoin (BTC) mining in order to tap into the untapped energy potential of its gas wells in Australia’s remote outback.
According to a report, Bengal Energy is planning to execute a pilot program in which about 70 Bitcoin mining rigs will be housed in a mobile facility known in the local mining industry as a “donga” that will be built near a series of previously out-of-operation gas wells in the Cooper Basin.
Eberspacher stated that the recently acquired gas wells presented a unique challenge for the energy company due to their status as “stranded wells.” This implies that, while the company can technically generate electricity from the gas on-site, the company cannot connect to the existing distribution pipelines.
The development of a pipeline to service Bengal’s remote gas wells is currently underway. However, COVID-19-related supply chain concerns have compounded the delays in the project’s development.
“We were basically looking at six months of having wells ready but without an outlet. We were dealing with stranded assets.”
An answer to the problem was found in the form of portable Bitcoin mining rigs in dongas. A donga for a trial will have 66 mining rigs that can make about 0.005 BTC a day, which is about $235.
Bengal Energy is apparently hoping to increase its Bitcoin mining output by a factor of 10 to 20 times if the trial is successful, suggesting that the daily income may range from $2000 to $5000.
On-Going Quest for Sustainable Energy Sources for Bitcoin Mining
Increasing numbers of mining companies, notably Conoco Philips and Exxon Mobil, are looking to unleash the full potential of normally lost or stranded energy by using portable Bitcoin mining operations.
In response to rising environmental concerns over Bitcoin mining, fossil fuel companies have become increasingly interested in the discovery of novel ways to limit the negative repercussions of mining processes and, where possible, harness any viable alternatives.
The El Salvadoran government had earlier shared plans for bitcoin mining in the country, which would see geothermal energy used to power bitcoin mining operations in the country.
In a tweet sent out in June of last year, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele provided a glimpse of what the proposed volcano-powered bitcoin mining facility might look like.
Back in June of last year, Bukele made the first public announcement of the idea to use geothermal energy to fuel bitcoin mining operations. As reported by El Salvador’s President, he has requested that the country’s state-owned geothermal corporation design a plan for mining bitcoin using clean and sustainable energy derived from the country’s volcanoes. Bukele stated shortly after that engineers had already begun digging a well to allow for the utilization of geothermal energy from the volcanoes.
