Increasingly, Permian Basin oilfield sites are accommodating bitcoin mining alongside pumping units and natural gas processing plants.
The rise in bitcoin mining operations in the Permian Basin has jumped so significantly in just the last six months that the MOTRAN Alliance has decided to host a workshop on crypto currency and bitcoin mining. The workshop will be at the Petroleum Museum on May 4 beginning at 11 a.m. and should last until 1 p.m.
“It’s part of the future,” James Beauchamp, president of MOTRAN, told the Reporter-Telegram in a telephone interview. He said he recently attended large crypto currency and bitcoin mining conferences and the Permian Basin was being talked about at both events. Large US companies and even foreign companies are setting up operations in the Permian, he said.
“One of the things we’ve done with the coalition is educate and inform folks,” Beauchamp said. He said the workshop will dive into the subject “good, bad and indifferent.”
One topic will be how bitcoin miners can help oil and gas operators with their environmental footprint by utilizing wellhead gas or gas that would otherwise be flared because it’s not pipeline quality or because of a lack of takeaway capacity.
That will be the topic for Kat Galloway, chief executive officer of Artemis Energy, an oil and gas Bitcoin mining company whose goal is to reduce emissions in the oilfield through Bitcoin mining integration.
Cole Harrison, business development manager for Baseline Energy Services, a rental provider of natural gas generators across the country, will discuss off-grid mining with natural gas generators.
Paul Cockerham, who currently manages Fortress Energy’s operated assets as operations engineer and Verde Mining’s flare gas bitcoin mining, will talk about how Bitcoin serves Midland. He has been active in crypto investing and mining since 2017.
“We’re not trying to sell people on converting their 401Ks to cryptocurrency,” said Beauchamp. “We want to understand cryptocurrency.”
He noted the rising demand bitcoin mining is having on the state’s electric grid and said that development could, “One, be a disaster, or two, have a dynamic positive impact (and) create a whole new power source using underutilized, undervalued natural gas. That’s we need this discussion and education – so we can better captain our own ship.”
The workshop is free of charge, but preregistration is requested as lunch will be provided. Registration can be made by email at james@motran.org or by calling 563-6240.
