Need Energy: Operator, Landman, Engineer(?)

[themack89]

Hi all, I've stopped in for my semi-annual posting binge.

Long story short: Bought several MW of load in Bitcoin miners, currently getting them tested and rigged up in mobile containers. Looking to get these things energized. Either off-grid or on grid if conditions are right (as in, probably partnering up with an energy provider in some capacity). Just for full disclosure: current miner configuration is set for well over $1mm USD/year.

My preferred avenue is starting up a conversation with Medicine Hat. I noticed they are shutting down gas wells because they cannot operate them profitably. I don't want to approach them at this precise moment, because I do not understand what costs are involved in operating a gas well. Hence why I have returned here. I know this forum is likely one of the best places to come for a high concentration of O&G knowledge and experience.

There is more profitability here than I am letting on, I just don't want to post it publicly.

If you have a good idea, or know someone, or are someone, who can assist in getting these fired up, there is pie available to be shared.

*Edit, Please note: the play here is not to deal and stay in Crypto per se.
The play here is to deal in Energy and real optionality w/ Energy related assets.
Did not come for lectures or criticism, we all understand the laws of thermodynamics.

Thanks guys.
Best bet is to Gmail me at murraymack

[killramos]

Is this the same as what Iron Bridge ( unsuccessfully ) tried to do?

[pheoxs]

Anyone that invests in bitcoin miners in Canada doesn't know how the bitcoin difficulty factor works. 0 chance of being successful.

[themack89]

Is this the same as what Iron Bridge ( unsuccessfully ) tried to do?


Anyone that invests in bitcoin miners in Canada doesn't know how the bitcoin difficulty factor works. 0 chance of being successful.

A lot of people have tried unsuccessfully, usually from a "mine the coin for profit" angle. We have a couple successful energy traders on the team who view the coin production as a hedge.

Look up Real Options and the dots will start to connect. I appreciate the concerns though.

*Edit, also Hashrate derivatives weren't a thing before (proxy for difficulty factor)

[riander5]

I wonder how successful this will be with gas making a comeback. I suppose BTC is ramping higher than gas so you know your metrics, but I doubt people are giving away gas wells for free at the moment.

What does a gas well need to run? Depends on the well. What condition of fuel does your generator need? There are tons of variables... Im not super familiar with med hat but your best bet is finding one well that supplies you with the gas you need, versus having a bunch of low producers - which is likely the wells they are shutting in.

[Darkane]

This isn’t about turning profit in Bitcoin, it’s about maintaining well production while getting rid of the gas.

If the Bitcoin machine pays itself off in - 18 months on current blocks, it’s a huge success.

The well can keep going instead of shutting it down.

[themack89]

I wonder how successful this will be with gas making a comeback. I suppose BTC is ramping higher than gas so you know your metrics, but I doubt people are giving away gas wells for free at the moment.

What does a gas well need to run? Depends on the well. What condition of fuel does your generator need? There are tons of variables... Im not super familiar with med hat but your best bet is finding one well that supplies you with the gas you need, versus having a bunch of low producers - which is likely the wells they are shutting in.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/commodities/video/alberta-s-gas-city-plans-to-shut-down-2-000-money-losing-wells~1781374

This is pretty much why I am asking about operating cost of the well.

If I laid out a few base case scenarios for gen configuration, could you fill in some gaps on operating costs? Or am I even framing the question properly?

I guess it would help me if there was like a bullet point list on the personnel you need to operate a gas well, and the materials / resources required to do it.


This isn’t about turning profit in Bitcoin, it’s about maintaining well production while getting rid of the gas.

If the Bitcoin machine pays itself off in - 18 months on current blocks, it’s a huge success.

The well can keep going instead of shutting it down.

Correct.

[pheoxs]

I think you VASTLY underestimate how much a 1MW genset would cost that can run off syngas.

You're basically taking a very expensive capital project (Bitcoin miners) and fusing it with another very expensive capital project (genset) all for the sake of getting free electricity (assuming you get a free gas well).

[dirtsniffer]

Produce gas
Dry gas
dispose of water / liquids
maybe dry gas again
use gas

does 1 medicine hat gas well produce enough gas? can you get it dry enough on site? Transport costs? disposal costs?

500 mw generator use 4000 m3/day of gas for reference.
https://www.generac.com/Industrial/products/gaseous-generators/configured/500kw-gaseous-generator
Cost? I dunno, mid-high six figures?

couple thoughts from an layman.

Going to an oil producer could be a better bet as they may be dealing with a problem of trying to tie in gas assets. I know in the permian for a while take away capacity for gas was limiting production for operators. Might be resolved now though.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Hi all, I've stopped in for my semi-annual posting binge.

Long story short: Bought several MW of load in Bitcoin miners, currently getting them tested and rigged up in mobile containers. Looking to get these things energized. Either off-grid or on grid if conditions are right (as in, probably partnering up with an energy provider in some capacity). Just for full disclosure: current miner configuration is set for well over $1mm USD/year.

My preferred avenue is starting up a conversation with Medicine Hat. I noticed they are shutting down gas wells because they cannot operate them profitably. I don't want to approach them at this precise moment, because I do not understand what costs are involved in operating a gas well. Hence why I have returned here. I know this forum is likely one of the best places to come for a high concentration of O&G knowledge and experience.

There is more profitability here than I am letting on, I just don't want to post it publicly.

If you have a good idea, or know someone, or are someone, who can assist in getting these fired up, there is pie available to be shared.

*Edit, Please note: the play here is not to deal and stay in Crypto per se.
The play here is to deal in Energy and real optionality w/ Energy related assets.
Did not come for lectures or criticism, we all understand the laws of thermodynamics.

Thanks guys.
Best bet is to Gmail me at murraymack

So, you've got the computing infrastructure purchased and it's being packaged and your economics is based on paying for grid power. Correct?

And now you want to explore purchasing gas from someone and using that to generate 100% of your power? (Doesn't sound like it).
Or, you're looking at buying/owning an abandoned, producing well and feeding a gas turbine to generate your power. Correct?

[themack89]

I think you VASTLY underestimate how much a 1MW genset would cost that can run off syngas.

You're basically taking a very expensive capital project (Bitcoin miners) and fusing it with another very expensive capital project (genset) all for the sake of getting free electricity (assuming you get a free gas well).

The cost basis we got the miners for was quite low, almost for free. Even if we spin at break even, it pays off the asset. In any case, I came here seeking outside the box thinking. You are saying "this is impossible", what I am offering is a slice of the pie of you come up with a notion of "how this may be possible" given the current socioeconomic environment of Alberta, an ultra low cost capital base, and only to at least satisfy the requirement of breaking even.

We are also exploring Solar and Hydro. Basically stranded energy.

[pheoxs]

The cost basis we got the miners for was quite low, almost for free. Even if we spin at break even, it pays off the asset. In any case, I came here seeking outside the box thinking. You are saying "this is impossible", what I am offering is a slice of the pie of you come up with a notion of "how this may be possible" given the current socioeconomic environment of Alberta, an ultra low cost capital base, and only to at least satisfy the requirement of breaking even.

We are also exploring Solar and Hydro. Basically stranded energy.

I'm starting to think you bought the bankrupted Medicine hat bitcoin mining company. Hence the location and cheap miners haha

[themack89]

So, you've got the computing infrastructure purchased and it's being packaged and your economics is based on paying for grid power. Correct?

And now you want to explore purchasing gas from someone and using that to generate 100% of your power? (Doesn't sound like it).
Or, you're looking at buying/owning an abandoned, producing well and feeding a gas turbine to generate your power. Correct?

Not committed to any particular path at the moment, and open to many.

Ideally, however we energize, it is mutually beneficial for all parties.

[themack89]

Produce gas
Dry gas
dispose of water / liquids
maybe dry gas again
use gas

Do all of these items happen on site before its tied into feed civilization? Or is there wild variation from site to site.



does 1 medicine hat gas well produce enough gas? can you get it dry enough on site? Transport costs? disposal costs?

Ballpark requirement of around 1mmcf/d assuming a 13 HR.


Produce gas
500 mw generator use 4000 m3/day of gas for reference.
https://www.generac.com/Industrial/products/gaseous-generators/configured/500kw-gaseous-generator
Cost? I dunno, mid-high six figures?

couple thoughts from an layman.

Going to an oil producer could be a better bet as they may be dealing with a problem of trying to tie in gas assets.

Essentially, with our current team we have zero experience with tying into a well or gas infrastructure.

Who is 'the guy' that we'd be looking for to be able to answer these questions you are asking? E.g. their title, or would it be more than one person.

[killramos]

I wish you the best of luck, but people who actually had experience operating wells and field facilities couldn’t make it work even as a sideshow and couldn’t give away the mining equipment when they were done with it.

The liabilities alone, which the government will make you with no producing assets pay up front for, in those gas wells/fields will kill you.

If you want to pay someone to provide you with economics based advice around the costs of operating wells maybe start with an independent qualified reserve evaluator. They can at least get you your ballpark operating cost and liability metrics for the area you are considering operating in, if you can afford them. Also don’t expect any of these guys to pick up the phone for the next 3 months during busy season. But really, what you are talking about is starting a small oil company just to mine coins.

[themack89]

I wish you the best of luck, but people who actually had experience operating wells and field facilities couldn’t make it work even as a sideshow and couldn’t give away the mining equipment when they were done with it.

The liabilities alone, which the government will make you with no producing assets pay up front for, in those gas wells/fields will kill you.

These were the initial concerns. Internally there is a slowly developing lean towards Solar or existing Hydro which is spilling.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Not committed to any particular path at the moment, and open to many.

Ideally, however we energize, it is mutually beneficial for all parties.

Ok. So you're going to need to own a fair bit more equipment. Let's take the huge assumption that the gas you find is of a composition reasonable enough to feed a turbine. (While I think you can use some engineering to find a turbine that'll run on a blended methane/ethane/propane feed, it will still need to be sweet and have very little water, which is unlikely). Let's assume you don't need to do any gas conditioning upstream of the turbine... You'll need to buy:
Inlet compressor (maybe)
Inlet metering (hopefully doesn't have to meet Directive-17, because it's very expensive)
Turbine(s)
Electrical mumbo jumbo (maybe). I feel like something like switch gear or a transformer or MCC's are going to be involved.
Some sort of permit for all the evil, evil CO2 you're generating.
Permit for a power generation facility because you're >1.0MW. (MAYBE).

If that last one is real, the permitting requirements are very onerous and time consuming. I know I've heard about this >1.0MW thing from a person who was taking waste heat to make steam to generate part of their own plant's power from a steam generator and they definitely did not want to go over 1MW.

Overall, it feels like the cost of all this extra equipment you'd have to buy is going to chew up your margins and add much complexity.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Do all of these items happen on site before its tied into feed civilization? Or is there wild variation from site to site.



Ballpark requirement of around 1mmcf/d assuming a 13 HR.



Ballpark requirement of around 1mmcf/d assuming a 12 HR. Essentially, with our current team we have zero experience with tying into a well or gas infrastructure.

Who is 'the guy' that we'd be looking for to be able to answer these questions you are asking? E.g. their title, or would it be more than one person.

These questions make me think you need some help on the gas side. Apologies if this is something you already knew. I'm only trying to help.
Gas wells don't produce what goes into the furnace in your house. For simplicity, let's say that "pipeline gas" that you burn in your house or that industrial facilities burn is essentially nearly pure methane.
Wells produce lots and lots of methane but it's mixed with other shit that no one wants like water, CO2, ethane, propane, butane, hopefully not H2S, etc.
A "gas plant" removes those substances so that they can sell "pipeline gas" (aka pretty close to pure methane) to ATCO or whoever so they can sell it to users.

[themack89]

Ok. So you're going to need to own a fair bit more equipment. Let's take the huge assumption that the gas you find is of a composition reasonable enough to feed a turbine. (While I think you can use some engineering to find a turbine that'll run on a blended methane/ethane/propane feed, it will still need to be sweet and have very little water, which is unlikely). Let's assume you don't need to do any gas conditioning upstream of the turbine... You'll need to buy:
Inlet compressor (maybe)
Inlet metering (hopefully doesn't have to meet Directive-17, because it's very expensive)
Turbine(s)
Electrical mumbo jumbo (maybe). I feel like something like switch gear or a transformer or MCC's are going to be involved.
Some sort of permit for all the evil, evil CO2 you're generating.
Permit for a power generation facility because you're >1.0MW. (MAYBE).

If that last one is real, the permitting requirements are very onerous and time consuming. I know I've heard about this >1.0MW thing from a person who was taking waste heat to make steam to generate part of their own plant's power from a steam generator and they definitely did not want to go over 1MW.

Overall, it feels like the cost of all this extra equipment you'd have to buy is going to chew up your margins and add much complexity.

These questions make me think you need some help on the gas side. Apologies if this is something you already knew. I'm only trying to help.
Gas wells don't produce what goes into the furnace in your house. For simplicity, let's say that "pipeline gas" that you burn in your house or that industrial facilities burn is essentially nearly pure methane.
Wells produce lots and lots of methane but it's mixed with other shit that no one wants like water, CO2, ethane, propane, butane, hopefully not H2S, etc.
A "gas plant" removes those substances so that they can sell "pipeline gas" (aka pretty close to pure methane) to ATCO or whoever so they can sell it to users.

I'm guessing there are buried economics in here which push over and/or pull under the 1.0MW threshold then. Are you aware of any physical constraints for how much this could scale if it is all off-grid? E.g. Are there scenarios where you need to start considering modularity vs buying larger equipment.

Perhaps are you be available for a call? I could PM you.

[ExtraSlow]

Have a gander at some of the electrical generating systems already commercially availible for oil wells that have no pipeline. Lots of modular units available that just need a pipe to the wellhead.

Then you want your mining shit to be modular too, so if the well dies, you truck it 1 mile away and hook it all up to a new well.

However, my gut feel is that it's going to be vastly cheaper to just buy the gas, instead of owning the wells themselves.

Love the idea, anyone who wants to burn methane is a friend to me.

[themack89]

Have a gander at some of the electrical generating systems already commercially availible for oil wells that have no pipeline. Lots of modular units available that just need a pipe to the wellhead.

Then you want your mining shit to be modular too, so if the well dies, you truck it 1 mile away and hook it all up to a new well.

However, my gut feel is that it's going to be vastly cheaper to just buy the gas, instead of owning the wells themselves.

Love the idea, anyone who wants to burn methane is a friend to me.

Do you happen to have a line on some specific manufacturers?

[killramos]

Have a gander at some of the electrical generating systems already commercially availible for oil wells that have no pipeline. Lots of modular units available that just need a pipe to the wellhead.

Then you want your mining shit to be modular too, so if the well dies, you truck it 1 mile away and hook it all up to a new well.

However, my gut feel is that it's going to be vastly cheaper to just buy the gas, instead of owning the wells themselves.

Love the idea, anyone who wants to burn methane is a friend to me.

He needs a million a day of gas if I read correctly, no one is giving million a day gas wells for free. Probably going to cost at least a million bucks just to buy that production.

So he needs a small field of wells, with pipelines and field processing metering operators the whole shabang.

You need to cut the owning wells out of this and instead partner with an existing Company to sell you some of their gas.

[ExtraSlow]

This would need a roof:
95461

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Burning methane is wicked. Everyone should burn more methane. It's the only way to save humanity.

[themack89]

He needs a million a day of gas if I read correctly, no one is giving million a day gas wells for free. Probably going to cost at least a million bucks just to buy that production.

So he needs a small field of wells, with pipelines and field processing metering operators the whole shabang.

You need to cut the owning wells out of this and instead partner with an existing Company to sell you some of their gas.

The sticker value of $1mil sounds about right. No matter how you slice it, $1mil/MW seems to be the floor for most forms of energy generation.

Your last comment of 'existing Company to sell you some of their gas' is pretty much what I've been angling for. I am not sure how to start these discussions. Hard example: the company directory of any given O&G Company can be quite extensive. Which department would we look to speak to? Or does there exist some kind of Kijiji for gas.

[riander5]

You're gonna be looking at around a million bucks at least to get a generator bought and installed, and thats on the low end. Now add in your gas costs, field maintenance, contract operators, i mean even for 10 wells its probably half a million a year in OPEX at least

Like Killramos said you definitely aren't getting 1mmscfd well for free, and if you buy a bunch of old shitty ones your costs to maintain will be through the roof, let alone liability since they aren't worth much if you go under.

You'd think a place like AB with all our gas would be a paradise for people wanting to own a few wells here and there and try different things.... it probably was at one point but too many people declared bankruptcy and left the orphan well fund cleaning messes up so here we are.

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Are you willing to pay full price for their gas? Thats the big question.

You could always contact a gas marketing firm like Tenaska or similar. Im not sure their inner workings but they market gas from tons of clients

[ThePenIsMightier]

Have a gander at some of the electrical generating systems already commercially availible for oil wells that have no pipeline. Lots of modular units available that just need a pipe to the wellhead.

Then you want your mining shit to be modular too, so if the well dies, you truck it 1 mile away and hook it all up to a new well.

However, my gut feel is that it's going to be vastly cheaper to just buy the gas, instead of owning the wells themselves.

Love the idea, anyone who wants to burn methane is a friend to me.

This is a way way better idea. Now you're opening the door to burning "solution gas" from conventional drillers and frac'ers. Solution gas is killing them, so your gas will be nearly free but getting everything modularized and finding 1MM SCF/day might be the new challenge.

I wish I knew how sensitive gas turbines are to variable feeds. My gut says "very sensitive" but I don't know.


I'm not the right guy to call. I'd keep this open to help you narrow down your options. Right now you're "I want to make money with gas and electricity and Bitcoin". You need that narrowed down to "I want to take gas from this named facility and generate this much power to supply this modular facility. Please tell me if it's feasible." Once you're there, you can find some nerd engineers to do a Pre-FEED or feasibility study for you. That should hopefully be less than $100k. Fuck bringing someone in. Just pay engineers on contract.

[ExtraSlow]

Call a midstream company and ask about bulk natural gas for an industrial project. Maybe Altagas.

[ExtraSlow]

The generator companies have done a lot of work on fuel gas quality specs that they will give you for free. Don't pay an engineer for that shit. Hell, you don't need an engineer at all for a long time.
Talk to finning and agrekko about the generator options and specs.

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Assuming you can put the mining gear in a seacan, this is not actually that complicated from a technical perspective . It's plugging a few already designed systems together.

[revelations]

This sounds completely nuts but I did a initial study for a large hedge fund company regarding solar powered BTC/crypto mining setup around the lethbridge area (MH would be good too) - if you were to combine both natgas and solar, it could be viable for far longer.

No need for a large battery system to handle the night time loads that way - natgas at night and combination solar/natgas during the day as needed.

[JfuckinC]

This would need a roof:
95461

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Burning methane is wicked. Everyone should burn more methane. It's the only way to save humanity.

i don't know if this helps, but the last 100kw arrow we put on a site cost $68k.. Just for the Gen

[SKR]

I'm sure the City of Medicine Hat would be pretty receptive to any talk of buying gas from them right now. As far as who to talk to, I don't know. Call the mayor.

[ThePenIsMightier]

The generator companies have done a lot of work on fuel gas quality specs that they will give you for free. Don't pay an engineer for that shit. Hell, you don't need an engineer at all for a long time.
Talk to finning and agrekko about the generator options and specs.

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Assuming you can put the mining gear in a seacan, this is not actually that complicated from a technical perspective . It's plugging a few already designed systems together.

Yep, this. Fuck a gas turbine, you need piston power. Aggreko, Collicut, Caterpillar, all offer skidded, modularized solutions.

[schurchill39]

Yep, this. Fuck a gas turbine, you need piston power. Aggreko, Collicutt, Caterpillar, all offer skidded, modularized solutions.

I'm good buddies with the Calgary side of the Collicutt family and can put you in contact with them to get an idea on equipment. PM'ed

[themack89]

Well with the few replies that I have received, this is more than enough to chew on for the time being. I appreciate the rich insight from everybody.

I'm just going to reiterate that if you feel like you could play a key part in getting this project sorted out, and you would like a slice of pie, send me a PM. My philosophy is: the more smart guys you have working on the same problem, especially in this energy rich province, the greater the chances of success and avoiding pitfalls.

Eyes are wide open at the moment.

[Darkane]

You need to think outside Alberta. You’d have some competition, but check out the conventional dying wells just east of Lloyd instead.

Those are the we need to get rid of casing gas to keep producing wells. Might be clean enough to burn without processing.

https://www.upstreamdata.ca/

[themack89]

Hi guys,

Just an update on this. Actually went and did it. Still waiting on the Turbine guys to fix some of their electrical issues before we can fire up. 1% Sour. Fingers crossed.

Will come back to post again once it's purring.

https://imgur.com/a/oMglqId

Got another 1.5 MW of load to deploy, containers being built. Looking for gas + gen.

[haggis88]

Hi guys,

Just an update on this. Actually went and did it. Still waiting on the Turbine guys to fix some of their electrical issues before we can fire up. 1% Sour. Fingers crossed.

Will come back to post again once it's purring.

https://imgur.com/a/oMglqId

Got another 1.5 MW of load to deploy, containers being built. Looking for gas + gen.

very cool

what sort of generator did you go with?

[ExtraSlow]

Neato. As I said anyone burning methane is a friend to me.

[ThePenIsMightier]

This is something.

[sabad66]

Impressive dude. Respect for getting this going against the odds. Good luck with the next steps and keep us posted!

[Type_S1]

Hi guys,

Just an update on this. Actually went and did it. Still waiting on the Turbine guys to fix some of their electrical issues before we can fire up. 1% Sour. Fingers crossed.

Will come back to post again once it's purring.

https://imgur.com/a/oMglqId

Got another 1.5 MW of load to deploy, containers being built. Looking for gas + gen.

Pretty cool, best of luck on this. It’s funny reading past posts on Iron Bridge (RMP) saying that if they can’t make it work you couldnt. Everyone that worked for that company was a bunch of hacks and had no clue how to run a profitable O&G company let alone implementing new technology. Their head commercial person had a main job of selling coffee in a pyramid scheme and did RMP as a side-gig.

Did you buy your own wells or partner with an operator? How is the royalty side of this being handled for the gas that is used for power generation? There are a lot of “fly by night” guys setting these type of small operations up down in Texas right now hoping to make a buck.

From my understanding there is a ton of machines available worldwide right now due to China’s recent fight against Bitcoin. My thought on this was always that partnering with a midstreamer and setting up some serious computing power next to a gas plant made the most sense to make this work financially and manage the legal issues with the use of gas and royalties.

[tcon]

https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Jurassic-Park-Jeff-Goldblum.jpg

[you&me]

This is fucking awesome. It's great to see a situation where someone not only has an idea, but the actual execution.

Really impressive. :thumbsup:

[mr2mike]

Interested on if the 1% sour has any effect on the outcome.

I have 3 other companies asking and wanting to have an economic eval run.
It's trying to convince the purse string holders to try this.

[ThePenIsMightier]

^It will if they needed to but they didn't design for sour service piping...

[JfuckinC]

^It will if they needed to but they didn't design for sour service piping...

Why do you say that? Because of the threaded connections? Looks like a mix of piping classes too (different flange/valve ratings).

This is nest though, way to follow through. a guy actually asked me if we did anything like this last week at golf. TheMack89 if you need help on the engineering side(O&G specific I don’t know anything about computers lol) PM me.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Why do you say that? Because of the threaded connections? Looks like a mix of piping classes too (different flange/valve ratings).

This is nest though, way to follow through. a guy actually asked me if we did anything like this last week at golf. TheMack89 if you need help on the engineering side(O&G specific I don’t know anything about computers lol) PM me.

Metallurgy selection. I don't know what the cutoff for "sour service" but 1% sounds a long way from sweet.
Truly defined sour service corrodes the shit out of normal pipe and I think it also causes hydrogen embrittlement.

[killramos]

1% Sour is plenty sour.

Not critically sour. But FAR from trace.

[JPB]

NACE Standard MR0175-2003 is anything over 0.05 psi partial pressure is sour service for piping materials. So as long as this is running under 5 psi he is golden.

Oh, and anything over 20 ppm I would be recommending monitoring, alarms, and personal gas detectors.

[prae]

this is freakin' cool. good for you.

[JfuckinC]

Metallurgy selection. I don't know what the cutoff for "sour service" but 1% sounds a long way from sweet.
Truly defined sour service corrodes the shit out of normal pipe and I think it also causes hydrogen embrittlement.

What's normal pipe to you? haha

[ThePenIsMightier]

what's normal pipe to you? Haha

a106-b

[Darkane]

Interested on if the 1% sour has any effect on the outcome.

I have 3 other companies asking and wanting to have an economic eval run.
It's trying to convince the purse string holders to try this.

In terms of power production no, but exhaust and metallurgy - big yes.

I’m curious to see what they’re doing for tailpipe emissions, burning produced gas in a facility requires stack emissions reduction such as lime injection.

Maybe this is small enough scale?? Not sure

[haggis88]

NACE Standard MR0175-2003 is anything over 0.05 psi partial pressure is sour service for piping materials. So as long as this is running under 5 psi he is golden.

Oh, and anything over 20 ppm I would be recommending monitoring, alarms, and personal gas detectors.

isn't the STEL on sour gas only 15ppm? with the 8hr limit at 1ppm?

I'd get monitors if there was anything over 1ppm and probably have supplied air on site incase of a leak

[killramos]

H2S is fun

[schurchill39]

I'm having anxiety just thinking of the H2S Flare modeling (even though I should probably whore myself out to do it as a side gig *shudders*)

[ExtraSlow]

some of this sounds like real engineering. Gross.

[killramos]

some of this sounds like real engineering. Gross.

Haha right?

[ExtraSlow]

If It can't be done on powerpoint, I'm not interested.

[schurchill39]

Want to feel like you're really using your education? Toss a vlookup in a spreadsheet and watch how fast I'll stamp that mutha fucka!

[killramos]

Wutsa stamp for?

[JfuckinC]

you guys must all be at producers or upstream companies the way you're talking about this stuff

[Darkane]

Wutsa stamp for?

Approving invoices.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Wutsa stamp for?

Exactly. If this is real, I got a feeling there's some hoops that were not jumped through.
Burning sour gas to generate possibly >1MW of power goes from marginal concept to commissioned in 6 months?

[schurchill39]

Exactly. If this is real, I got a feeling there's some hoops that were not jumped through.
Burning sour gas to generate possibly >1MW of power goes from marginal concept to commissioned in 6 months?

Or we aren't privy to the inner workings or homework that was done before or during the beyond posting? Unless this is a Chinese run seed company who says fuck it, then maybe that's the story :dunno:. From my last trip around Medicine Hat it actually looks like there are a few of these farms up and running so I would think there is at least some form of trail beaten into the bush to follow.

[killramos]

I’m not making any insinuations things were done incorrectly.

I maintain my original skepticisms but they are irrelevant at this point.

[Disoblige]

Hi guys,

Just an update on this. Actually went and did it. Still waiting on the Turbine guys to fix some of their electrical issues before we can fire up. 1% Sour. Fingers crossed.

Will come back to post again once it's purring.

https://imgur.com/a/oMglqId

Got another 1.5 MW of load to deploy, containers being built. Looking for gas + gen.
Who are you using for your electrical design input and then subsequent execution (construction)? Are any of your team members familiar with the electrical code and industry best practices or are you relying solely on whoever is doing the work to know their stuff?

[haggis88]

you guys must all be at producers or upstream companies the way you're talking about this stuff

I only know about the H2S as I literally recertified 3 days ago haha

The rest of the stuff I have essentially no fucking clue about, but I'll build gas turbines all day long bro

[JfuckinC]

I only know about the H2S as I literally recertified 3 days ago haha

The rest of the stuff I have essentially no fucking clue about, but I'll build gas turbines all day long bro

haha, i didn't make that comment in a rude way i swear. Just the way it was being discussed, like how i would discuss anything to do with drilling. lol.

I just draw pictures, building turbines sounds way more technical :rofl:

[haggis88]

haha, i didn't make that comment in a rude way i swear. Just the way it was being discussed, like how i would discuss anything to do with drilling. lol.

I just draw pictures, building turbines sounds way more technical :rofl:

Lol i didn't take it that way

I hate autocad and solidworks, those are way more technical than a few weird sized nuts and bolts and sharp wee blades :rofl:

[themack89]

Who are you using for your electrical design input and then subsequent execution (construction)? Are any of your team members familiar with the electrical code and industry best practices or are you relying solely on whoever is doing the work to know their stuff?

Both. One team member is a friend of mine who worked up from pulling wire to ME, did everything in between (in my personal opinion he's quite brilliant). Now he does designs for O&G plants, and helping out with on my side of things (the miners) is his side hustle. He knows Code pretty dang good, but there are things he'd have to lookup that I'm sure the guys at Intertek would just know. I hear the next edition of CEC is coming out soon. I'm really excited (I like looking through the tables to check ampacities and see how much certain cable configurations would cost).

Boots on the ground, got a guy who has been building sour sites for the better part of 30 years. His bread and butter is instrumentation and automation.

Honestly the weakest part of the team is probably on the piping side. Look at this thread and how excited everyone is getting because of it. :burnout: Unfortunately that part of the team is not under my jurisdiction, so I cannot tell them how and what to do. I'm a PMP by trade (construction), but I happen to not be 'the man' on this project because someone else has a bigger ego than I do haha.


Exactly. If this is real, I got a feeling there's some hoops that were not jumped through.
Burning sour gas to generate possibly >1MW of power goes from marginal concept to commissioned in 6 months?

My jurisdiction is not on the gas side for this particular project, but you are correct. From what I am observing, it is pretty rammy, and there are design considerations being engineered or solved on the fly. My domain is taking the electrons and making bitcoin.

Too lazy to quote other things going on in the thread, but some info that might help guide some other discussion:
- It's an oil well which I believe is around 2100psi at the wellhead (they have 6 tankers in and out everyday)
- The turbines are being fed with two 2-in lines, one is for start gas (need >150psi for 90 secs without ignition) and the other line is for fuel gas
- For start gas, because we can't vent and can't ignite, final decision was to pipe it back to the stack
- Operating pressure for the turbines is 125 to 150 as I understand. They run at 22,000RPM
- They are having issues with finding a coalescer that is sour spec
- VLOOKUP is for plebs. It's 2021, you can use INDEX MATCH now :angel:

[themack89]

.

[zechs]

1% Sour is plenty sour.

Not critically sour. But FAR from trace.

Was interesting working on some oilsands mining sites and being told there is no h2s, only to find out there is. Lots of ruined equipment, and like you said, it doesn't take much to be an issue if its not designed for it.

[mr2mike]

H2S is fun

99991

[riander5]

Guess i should have chimed in earlier, all i work with is sour piping haha

[ExtraSlow]

If you think facility engineers are fun, just wait till you hang with the facilities engineers that specialize in sour piping, amirite?

[Darkane]

If you think facility engineers are fun, just wait till you hang with the facilities engineers that specialize in sour piping, amirite?

Rite boss.

[themack89]

Has anyone here ever had to suit up to respond to an H2S incident?

[Darkane]

Has anyone here ever had to suit up to respond to an H2S incident?

Many times, thankfully never an injury, just a pipe blowout, sample taps left on, that kind of stuff.

[riander5]

Has anyone here ever had to suit up to respond to an H2S incident?

Not myself, but we had an acid gas well leak right by our site. That was some scary shit.

Make sure your pipe supports are designed well and stamped, and get a gyad dang vibration study done on all this stuff once you're running. This is assuming you built everything to a reasonable pipe spec

[brucebanner]

Has anyone here ever had to suit up to respond to an H2S incident?

Few times for incidents, many times in a maintenance situation.

[legendboy]

Let me guess: Bitfury?

[themack89]

Let me guess: Bitfury?

No. Custom design. Doesn't really matter though tbh. I've seen a lot of different designs and they all end up being the same in many ways.

Biggest variations in designs you'd see are what happens when it rains or snows or sand storms (or immersion / air cooled).

[ExtraSlow]

These guys seem to have a plan: https://gam.ai/

[themack89]

These guys seem to have a plan: https://gam.ai/

Yeah! There are many more as well, or at least it has become more palatable since BTC ran to the $30k+ range.

Looking for some help: the project manager for the turbine side is struggling to locate the following:

(4) NACE Compliant Parker Style Filters
(1) Coalescing Filter
(1) Sweetening can for pop tank vapours


Companies that have already been contacted for the parker filters and coalescing filters:

PCF Micron Filtration
Propak
CBVL Robotics
JL Filtration
CPS Filtration
JCI Group
Kirby Controls
CEG CreamCo


Companies that have already been contacted for the sweetening can:

AM-Gas
Reef Oilfield
International Oilfield Brokers

[ThePenIsMightier]

Did you contact the correct JCI? There's like 30 of them and I've had procurement people fuck that up, royally.
I think they guy I've dealt with there is named Voytek or something along those lines.

I don't think I can help with anything else in there.
Would something like a "Trace Erase" work for pop tank vapour?

[themack89]

Did you contact the correct JCI? There's like 30 of them and I've had procurement people fuck that up, royally.
I think they guy I've dealt with there is named Voytek or something along those lines.

I don't think I can help with anything else in there.
Would something like a "Trace Erase" work for pop tank vapour?

I passed on the message. Thank you sir.

[schocker]

For sweetening pots on tanks I have used http://www.odourcontrolsystem.com/ with just a drum of solid chemical off the tank (storage) vents.

[schurchill39]

Looking for some help: the project manager for the turbine side is struggling to locate the following:

(4) NACE Compliant Parker Style Filters
(1) Coalescing Filter



Jordan at GCES likely has these depending on your specs. I'll PM you contact info.

[themack89]

For sweetening pots on tanks I have used http://www.odourcontrolsystem.com/ with just a drum of solid chemical off the tank (storage) vents.

Thanks. Procurement guy came back and said it looks like that is the system we will end up using. Much appreciated.


Jordan at GCES likely has these depending on your specs. I'll PM you contact info.

PM'd in response, and much appreciated. :)

[JPB]

Not sure if this impacts themack89 but it looks like AUC has shut down (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/link-global-bitcoin-mine-alberta-1.6137731) a couple of these operations. I get where the homeowners are coming from, but on the flipside getting anything approved in this province that isn't the usual is a nightmare. I've talked to a couple of companies that want to do something different and small scale and they both chose just over the line in Saskatchewan as it is way simpler as far as permitting etc.

[lasimmon]

Not sure if this impacts themack89 but it looks like AUC has shut down (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/link-global-bitcoin-mine-alberta-1.6137731) a couple of these operations. I get where the homeowners are coming from, but on the flipside getting anything approved in this province that isn't the usual is a nightmare. I've talked to a couple of companies that want to do something different and small scale and they both chose just over the line in Saskatchewan as it is way simpler as far as permitting etc.

The noise was insane was it not? Go set it up in the middle of nowhere and will people complain?

[killramos]

MAGA Energy lol

I wonder if they have cool hats

[lasimmon]

MAGA Energy lol

I wonder if they have cool hats

I think they do. I was chatting with a guy who met with them recently. Couldn't believe the name so he showed me the card haha.

[killramos]

Hilarious. But hey if you are privately funded who cares.

[themack89]

Hi guys, just a brief update.

We energized. It works and it's minting coins.
Unfortunately we can't ramp up to 100% yet because their gas fell off, so we are stuck throttling at 50% plus minus.
However, O&G co is going to tie-in another pad that is flaring too much, so we will have more gas than we need.
We did deal with a noise complaint, it's actually the exhaust fans that are the loudest because the lower frequencies carry farther.
The turbines w/ the mufflers on them, you can't really hear them at all once you get as far as the lease entrance.
We built a really dense hay-bale wall and the complaints have since ceased.

Note: if anyone is ever going to do this, a small thing but a huge thing is to make sure you have someone who lives in the area that can actually service the deployment. Nearest guy we could find who has the skills and the willingness is an hour away, plus he's got a FT job.

Anyways, I am pretty happy. We are still in what we call the "testing" phase because we haven't fully loaded the turbines yet.
Will report back when that happens. :)

[ExtraSlow]

What volume of gas are you using per day? Pretty neat project. Agree the small turning generators are reasonably quiet, and at distance it is the kind of sound that fades into the background well.

[adamc]

I love this shit, good for you guys for getting up and running.

Very curious to hear whatever details you can share RE: agreements with the well owners, gas volumes, expected ROI, really anything to do with the economics of this stuff. Not trying to get into it myself, I just think it's a great way to use gas that otherwise would have been flared off.

[prae]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/link-global-auc-penalties-1.6194653

edit: huh. i guess i shouldnt be shocked cbc is basically recycling https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/413727-Need-Energy-Operator-Landman-Engineer(-)/page5?p=4996237#post4996237

[Disoblige]

Wonder how this may impact themack's operations. AUC states ignorance to the rules is no excuse.