Reabold Resources (a UK-listed oil & gas investment company) has just received an Environment Agency licence to carry out limited (“gentle”) fracking and well workover at the West Newton A site near Hull.

The field is one of the largest onshore gas discoveries in Britain in recent decadesReabold Resources (a UK-listed oil & gas investment company) has just received an Environment Agency licence to carry out limited (“gentle”) fracking and well workover at the West Newton A site near Hull.

The field is one of the largest onshore gas discoveries in Britain in recent decades, with estimated resources of up to 8 billion cubic metres of gas — theoretically enough to meet roughly a tenth of the UK’s annual gas demand if extracted all at once (though real-world recovery rates and production profiles mean the actual contribution would be spread over years and smaller).

Instead of immediately piping the gas into the national grid, Reabold is exploring a pilot project: build a small on-site gas-fired power station using the initial flows of gas after the upcoming workover. That electricity would power a Bitcoin mining data centre.

Bitcoin mining is being positioned as a quick-revenue, flexible first step — not the permanent, exclusive fate of the entire field.

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Giant Yorkshire Gas Field ‘To Mine Bitcoin Instead of Boosting British Energy’

Reabold Resources plans to build data centre powered by West Newton field near Hull

A giant new natural gas field in Yorkshire is to be exploited for mining Bitcoin rather than boosting Britain’s energy supplies. The Telegraph has the story.

Reabold Resources has been awarded a licence to carry out “gentle” fracking in the West Newton field near Hull, which is estimated to contain up to eight billion cubic metres of gas.

That would be enough to meet more than a tenth of the UK’s annual needs and makes it one of the largest onshore fields discovered in Britain, with the potential to bolster energy security for years to come.

However, Reabold instead plans to construct a small gas-fired power station on the site and use the energy produced to “mine” Bitcoin.

“A private gas supply means we can run a data centre to mine Bitcoin relatively cheaply,” said Sachin Oza, the co-chief executive of Reabold Resources, which has just been given a drilling licence by the Environment Agency.

“Initially, this would help fund the further development of the gas field and prove the concept – meaning it could become the precursor to a far larger data centre.”

The scheme has angered environmental groups opposed to new gas fields and fracking in particular.

It is also likely to raise questions in the Government after the war in Iran prompted fears of fuel shortages in the UK.

Bitcoin mining is one of the most energy-intensive of all digital activities. A power station would need to burn around 150,000 cubic metres of gas – the volume of 50 Olympic swimming pools – to generate the electricity needed to create one Bitcoin.

Reabold’s West Newton gas field is so large that it could theoretically power the creation of 50,000 Bitcoins.

Alternatively, it could help provide gas for the whole of the UK. The drilling site lies within a couple of miles of National Gas’s transmission pipeline and so could easily be connected.

Lorraine Inglis, a leader of an anti-fracking campaign group in southern England, said: “The West Newton permit exposes everything that is wrong with the UK’s current approach to energy and climate. A new onshore gas field in 2026 is fundamentally at odds with our climate commitments.

“Using that gas to power Bitcoin mining is not energy security or any genuine public benefit but the deliberate burning of fossil fuels for one of the most energy-intensive and socially questionable activities at a time of high bills and missed climate targets.”

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, imposed a ban on full-scale fracking last year. The process involves injecting high-pressure water laden with chemicals into rock to create cracks through which gas can flow.

The ban emerged after a fracking operation near Blackpool generated a series of minor earthquakes.

Read the full story here.