UK-based upstream oil and gas investment company, Reabold Resources, downplayed a Sunday report from The Telegraph newspaper that its large natural gas field in Yorkshire would be used for bitcoin (BTC) mining “instead of boosting British energy.”
The firm has been granted a license by the Environment Agency to conduct limited, low-pressure fracking at its West Newton site near Hull, estimated to hold up to eight billion cubic metres of gas — enough to meet more than 10% of the UK’s energy needs, according to The Telegraph.
“Reabold instead plans to construct a small gas-fired power station on the site and use the energy produced to ‘mine’ Bitcoin,” the report stated.
“A private gas supply means we can run a data centre to mine Bitcoin relatively cheaply,” Reabold Resources co-CEO Sachin Oza reportedly told the outlet. “Initially, this would help fund the further development of the gas field and prove the concept — meaning it could become the precursor to a far larger data centre.”
“Reabold’s West Newton gas field is so large that it could theoretically power the creation of 50,000 Bitcoins,” The Telegraph report said, without detailing a timeframe or any equipment procurement that could deliver such production capacity.
Oza also stated that the firm “could also sell the gas to one of the adjacent industrial centres or connect it to the national gas grid.”
The scheme has faced opposition from environmental groups opposed to new gas fields, particularly fracking.
“Using that gas to power Bitcoin mining is not energy security or any genuine public benefit but the deliberate burning of fossil fuels for one of the most energy-intensive and socially questionable activities at a time of high bills and missed climate targets,” Lorraine Inglis, a leader of an anti-fracking campaign group in southern England, told The Telegraph.
Clarification issued
Reabold Resources issued a clarification on Monday following the report.
“The significant onshore natural gas resource at the West Newton site in Yorkshire has and will continue to be progressed for the benefit of UK energy security, which is particularly important at this time of significant geopolitical uncertainty,” the firm said in a statement. “In addition, Reabold will continue to engage with all stakeholders, both locally and nationally, to ensure the optimal development pathway for West Newton is achieved.”
The firm said it is “exploring the potential to deploy a small-scale power generation facility at the West Newton A well site to mine bitcoin from initial flows of gas following the upcoming well workover.”
The idea is to demonstrate the ability to use the site’s gas to fuel data center developments that will be “crucial to the future UK economy,” it added. “Successful implementation of such a project could allow for the development of a larger-scale data centre at site, which would not preclude the potential for gas to grid, or gas to industrial consumption development options.”
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