Bengal Energy to Mine Bitcoin With Stranded Gas in Australia
Canadian oil and gas company, Bengal Energy, prepares to launch Bitcoin mining efforts in Australia. The company will be setting up a portable building for the purpose of housing 70 mining rigs as part of its up-and-coming pilot program. These rigs will be close to gas wells that were previously non-functional, per a report from The Australian.
The gas wells were purchased from Santos Energy and Bridgeport Energy, according to Bengal’s Chief Operating Officer. However, there have been concerns related to the location and the lack of any recent operations that utilized the wells.
One of the concerns stems from the distance between the distribution pipelines and the gas wells. Bengal cited plans to use a pipeline that’s currently being constructed but remains cautious due to supply chain shortages brought on by the pandemic stating, “We were basically looking at six months of having wells ready but without an outlet. We were dealing with stranded assets.”
While searching for an alternative solution, the company ultimately decided to start mining Bitcoin using portable buildings, also known as “dongas.” Each donga setup will include 66 mining machines and will generate around 0.005 BTC a day.
If the mining efforts are successful, Bengal Energy will look to double their Bitcoin mining output by a ratio of 10 to 20, resulting in an estimated income of $2,000 to $5,000 a day.
As endeavors ramp for more sustainable ways to alter the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, many businesses are turning to portable mining operations as a way to utilize energy that otherwise would be lost or remain unused.
Companies, such as Exxon Mobile, for example, are seeing positive results from using in portable mining buildings. Exxon launched its own pilot program back in January 2021 and is seeing desired results. The project is currently consuming “18 million cubic feet of gas per month that would have otherwise been flared due to the insufficiency of pipelines.”