Bitcoin miner Crusoe Energy on Wednesday acquired rival Great American Mining (GAM), a North American mining company that converts stranded gas into Bitcoin mining power. Both Crusoe Energy and GAM are Bitcoin mining companies that offer a solution for oil and gas companies to reduce flaring and increase oil production.

Under the agreement, Crusoe will acquire GAM’s operating assets, including 10 megawatts (MW) of operational Bitcoin mining capacity, around 4,000 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners, as well as a manufacturing facility in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. , to be used as the new Crusoe research and development site. Crusoe will also acquire GAM’s 24 employees, as well as GAM’s business relationships with several large-scale power producers in the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana.

Crusoe said the acquisition will accelerate its Digital Flare Mitigation (DFM) business through additional scale while allowing it to more efficiently reduce the impact of natural gas flaring using its proprietary DFM technologies and advanced large-scale operating capabilities. scale.

Crusoe further stated that the acquisition will integrate GAM’s operations into its DFM systems to utilize stranded and wasted energy resources to enable energy-intensive computing and power modular data centers.

Crusoe said the acquisition of GAM’s assets will add about 9% to its operating capacity, helping it expand its Bitcoin mining and cloud computing operations.

Crypto Mining Solving Global Energy Problems

Like Crusoe and GAM, a growing number of crypto miners are turning to burning natural gas for the energy they need.

It is common to see oil well sites flaring gas, a technique used by oil companies to burn natural gas that comes to the surface during the extraction process. Today, Bitcoin miners want to use that gas as an energy source for cryptocurrency mining. By capturing excess gas that would otherwise burn off in oil wells, Bitcoin miners are tapping into a cheap energy source.

Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and others are also turning to Bitcoin mining to add income to their financial portfolios. In March, reports indicated that ExxonMobil, the largest US oil and gas producer, has been working with Denver-based Crusoe Energy to mine Bitcoin in North Dakota.

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