Russian oil companies want to offer electricity produced at their oil fields to mine crypto currency
Russian oil companies want to offer Chinese crypto currency miners to mine crypto currency at their oil fields
Russian oil companies have proposed to use Russian equipment in their fields for crypto currency mining. The proposal was sent for consideration to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Statistics and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the newspaper Kommersant reports with reference to the letter of the deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak of September 7 to the Ministry of Statistics and the Central Bank.
The project may be of interest to foreign investors, primarily from China, where mining is prohibited, experts believe. In Russia, the law regulating the procedure for the circulation of digital currencies has not yet been adopted.
According to the newspaper, the project involves the use of petroleum gas to generate electricity for crypto currency mining centers. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has asked the Central Bank to report whether such an idea is legitimate.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade told Kommersant that the project was proposed by market participants and is being discussed with the regulators. In accordance with the law "On Digital Financial Assets", the procedure for the circulation of digital currency should be regulated by separate laws. As the Russian Central Bank told Kommersant it is reviewing the legal details. The Ministry of Statistics did not provide any comments.
Kommersant, citing a source close to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, reports that one of the major Russian oil companies would like to scale its crypto currency mining project, but this segment is in a legally gray zone, and the company fears a negative reaction from the Central Bank. It appealed to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which can discuss the risks with the regulator.
The head of the Russian Association of Data Center Industry Participants, Igor Dorofeev, told the publication that this initiative is a non-core area for oil workers and is costly in terms of data center maintenance.
According to the newspaper, only Gazprom Neft has a crypto currency mining project. In 2020, the company launched the crypto currency mining operation at its oil field in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. The company's partners managed to get 1.8 BTC in a month, Forklog reported.