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An oil well pad near Sidney is pictured in June 2021. The structures to the right contain a Bitcoin mining operation fueled by excess natural gas produced as a result of oil extraction at the site.
ERIC DIETRICH, Montana Free press
ERIC DIETRICH Montana Free Press
SIDNEY On a sunny oil rig not too far from the North Dakota border, the iconic Bakken Oilfield infrastructure towers over pink gravel, pump trucks hauling energy-rich hydrocarbons thousands of feet deep under the prairie of eastern Montana.
A multi-story flare and storage containers can be found along the perimeter of the platforms, along with a sign announcing the site owner, Houston-based Kraken Oil & Gas. On the other side of the pad, however, a line of metal buildings put together by a Colorado startup represents a decidedly non-traditional arrangement for the oil industry. Buzzing generators hook up electricity to a handful of squat boxes that look like a cross between shipping containers and hot dog stalls. Under the awnings, roaring fans project hot air streams scorching over their sides.
Inside, behind a tangle of power cords and network cables, a full wall of each container is filled with high-tech computer equipment, powerful servers soaring to put the produced natural gas as a by-product. from oil production buffers to use on a whole different kind of mining: digital cryptocurrency mining.
Instead of burning it down, we’re trying to bring something to the site so that we can use it and create something beneficial, said Bruce Larsen, a native of Sidney, president of Krakens.
Kraken dug here for oil released by hydraulic fracturing, or hydraulic fracturing, the technology that, along with horizontal drilling, spurred the Bakken oil boom in North Dakota and that part of eastern Montana in the late 1970s. 2000s and early 2010s. Even though the boom has cooled off from its peak over the past decade, production has continued on platforms like this, where liquid oil extracted from the earth is evacuated to refineries which convert it into gasoline or plastic. On sites without a pipeline connection, producers instead transport the liquid oil in tanks.
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