In the sun-swept plains of the Texas panhandle sits a handful of Norwood Energy's many producing oil and gas wells. Natural gas takeaway is a challenge in this part of the state with many producers either shut-in or actively flaring natural gas.
For Norwood Energy, business-as-usual was to simply flare their natural gas. Without a pipeline, flaring was the only viable option to keep their oil dominant wells flowing. This was never a problem for Norwood Energy, or for their many neighboring producers, until recently. Over the past year the upstream oil and gas industry has been faced with mounting regulation, the latest being the enactment of OOOOb restrictions that will all but eliminate flaring by 2026. Without an answer for their gas, and with flaring all but off the table, these panhandle producers will eventually be forced to shut their wells in and eventually P&A them.
Norwood Energy saw the writing on the wall and knew they needed to do something with their associated natural gas if they were going to keep their oil wells online. They reached out to 360 Mining to explore a pilot project that could turn their liability gas stream into a cash generating asset.
360 Mining deployed four of our standard In-Field Computing units to the site and were able to eliminate the flare through the complete combustion of clean burning natural gas generators. In-Field Computing provided Norwood Energy with the operational tool that kept their oil and gas wells in compliance and, most importantly, their oil flowing. Keeping their leases active and the oil "spigot" open was a strong value prop in and of itself. However, that was not all. By deploying an In-Field Compute at their pad site, Norwood Energy was also able to monetize natural gas that was being otherwise wasted. Norwood Energy went from zero gas revenue to an impressive $16 per Mcf. Leveraging In-Field Computing unlocked operational, monetary and regulatory improvements that completely changed the future of this oil and gas asset.
The president of Norwood Energy, Grant Norwood, had this to say: "We had heard about Bitcoin mining in the oilfield but did not know the first thing about it. The idea of purchasing and operating our own infrastructure was a daunting task that carried a ton of execution risk. With 360 Mining, we get to do what we do best, produce oil and gas while simultaneously gaining the operation and financial benefit of Bitcoin mining. 360 Mining has been a great partner and we are excited to kick off our second project together soon."
Today, NEC Operating continues to grow their In-Field Computing footprint with 360 Mining. Their second deployment is going live in Wise County, Texas in Q4 2024.
