Russian firm providing excess gas to power bitcoin mining operations. Russian oil drilling subsidiary Gazpromneft is supplying bitcoin miners to utilise excess gas from oil drilling to mine the leading cryptocurrency, according to multiple reports.
As with mining operations in North America, such as Greenidge Generation, Crusoe Energy Systems, EZ Blockchain, and Upstream Data, a small mining operation named Vekus was the first to exploit Gazpromneft’s excess gas. The regional publication Forklog said that Vekus installed a container filled with 150 Antminers and during the test pilot the group used “49,500 cubic meters of associated gas and produced 1.8 BTC.”
The CFO of Vekus, Yuri Kudryashov, commented on the project and said “The lion’s share of the cost of mining is electricity costs. For this reason, Vekus is constantly looking for reliable sources of cheap electricity. We gladly responded to the proposal of Gazpromneft to organize a pilot project at one of the fields.”
Gazpromneft supplied the electricity processed from the excess natural gas and the electricity prices Vekus received were alot more resonable as compared to having it purchased directly from the grid. The Russian energy giant plans to invite more bitcoin miners to the facility so they can benefit from the excess natural gas.
[image: Gazpromneft]
