Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Muhammad Ali Tamim, recently co-chaired a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the future partnership between Iraq and the United States. During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tamim emphasized Iraq’s goal of reducing its reliance on fossil fuels, lowering pollution, and forging new partnerships to capture flare gas, a harmful byproduct of the oil field industry. This statement has sparked speculation in the crypto community that Iraq may be considering entering the Bitcoin mining sector.
Flare gas is produced when crude oil is extracted and refined. Normally, this waste gas is either converted into electricity or released into the atmosphere. However, due to the remote locations of Iraq’s oil fields, it has been economically unfeasible to convert the flare gas, resulting in significant pollution.
Iraq’s Rumaila oil field is the largest producer of toxic flare gas in the world. Efforts are currently underway to capture and repurpose up to 60% of the gas, with the goal of eliminating all gas flaring in the country by 2027.
Bitcoin mining has utilized a wide range of energy sources, from nuclear power to unconventional ones like human waste. Texas-based startup Giga, for example, uses flare gas from local oil fields to power their portable mining rigs and has been making millions in profits since 2021.
In Iraq, the challenge of converting 100% of the country’s flare gas into usable electricity is immense. However, given Iraq’s need to balance its domestic energy requirements with its foreign debt, using some of the captured electricity for Bitcoin mining could have a significant positive impact.
Additionally, captured flare gas energy could be used for carbon credits. This would not only help Iraq reduce its carbon footprint but also enable the nation to participate in the international market by selling carbon credits through blockchain technology. This would provide irrefutable evidence of Iraq’s efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and potentially generate temporary revenue.