Oil-and-gas firm to deploy up to one million Bitcoin miners in Canada from China

American oil-and-gas corporation Black Rock Petroleum Company has signed a binding agreement with Optimum Mining Host Limited Liability Co. to host and operate up to one million Bitcoin miners.

According to the press release, equipment being moved from China will be imported into Canada for deployment at three sites in the gas-producing region of Alberta.

The first batch of 200,000 miners will be hosted at the recently acquired gas-processing plant Quirk Creek, operated by Caledonian Midstream Corporation.

The contract is for 24 months with an option to extend for 12 months on prior notice. Black Rock has committed, for the agreed price, to provide hosting, maintenance, repair, security of the equipment and electricity supply at a price of $0.02 per kWh.

The initial commitment under the contract envisions the deployment of 200,000 units of equipment plus 300,000 devices in the near term. For this, Black Rock will activate a second site in Alberta. The location for hosting a further 500,000 miners will be determined at a later date.

CEO Zoltan Nad noted that demand for gas is rising across North America, and Quirk Creek is well suited to serve the Alberta market.

The company estimates gas reserves at the field where the plant is located at 1.4 billion cubic metres.

“Current production levels are healthy, and our engineers have reviewed operating records and recent reserve estimates, and we are confident that we have the expertise, technology and resources to significantly increase production and, in turn, the plant’s cash flow, and to host and operate Bitcoin miners at an energy price of around three Canadian cents per kWh,” said Nad.

According to him, with the agreement with Optimum Mining the company is entering the Canadian Bitcoin mining and hosting market and joining publicly traded players in the industry such as Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digita, Argo Blockchain and Genesis Digital Assets.

Earlier, Huram Shroff, head of Dubai-based investment firm IBC Group, described the relocation of mining capacity from China due to government crackdowns as «a huge opportunity for Canada».

CEO MicroStrategy Michael Saylor also said that as a result of the exodus of Bitcoin mining capacity from China, industry players in North America «will gain additional profits».

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