Major oil companies are starting to consider bitcoin mining operations, as is Brazil's state-owned Petrobras, which produces about 3 million barrels of crude oil.
Certified blockchain and token economy architect Marcelo Curi, who is leading the initiative, said the company is “at the center of a historic RD process” aimed at developing business models using this “powerful innovation framework for the transition to low-carbon technologies.”
The Petrobras group, which includes a multidisciplinary team of climate change researchers, oil researchers and cryptocurrency experts, will also look to explore the possibilities of tokenization and Web3.
Petrobras is not the first oil company to plan to use Bitcoin as a complementary activity with a dual purpose. In 2022, one of the largest oil and gas companies, Exxon Mobil, implemented a pilot project to use flared gas to power bitcoin miners in North Dakota.
Argentine oil and gas company Tecpetrol is also mining bitcoins at the Vaca Muerta oil field, where the byproducts of production are not economically viable.