Oman backs Crusoe Energy to cut natural gas flaring

In April this year, Crusoe Energy announced that it has closed a $350 million Series C equity offering, providing new capital to accelerate Crusoe’s mission to align the future of computing with the future of the climate. In addition to equity capital, Crusoe has closed credit facilities expandable up to $155 million with SVB Capital, Sparkfund and Generate Capital to provide additional debt capital for energy systems related to flare mitigation.

It was reported on Bloomberg that Denver-based Crusoe will open an office in Muscat, Oman, to help deploy power generators and mining equipment for capturing gas at well sites, said Chief Executive Officer Chase Lochmiller. The Middle East and North Africa account for about 38% of the world’s flaring -- the burning of excess natural gas from oilfields. The practice has come under fire for releasing harmful greenhouse gases and worsening climate change. 

“We’ve always felt it was important for us to have a presence in the MENA region,” given its share of global flaring, Lochmiller said. “Having the buy-in from nations that are actively trying to solve the flaring issues is what we are looking for.”

This news also unfolded the fact that Oman’s sovereign wealth fund took an equity stake in a U.S. firm that says it helps fossil-fuel producers cut flaring by using stranded natural gas to power cryptocurrency mining instead. Oman Investment Authority was part of the $350 million equity round that Crusoe Energy Systems Inc. raised in April, according to a statement. Ismail Ibrahim Al-Harthi, senior manager of technology investments at Oman Investment Authority, said to Bloomberg the firm’s policy doesn’t comment on the size of stakes. Crusoe also declined to reveal terms.

As per their statement, Crusoe is on a mission to align the future of computing with the future of the climate. The company is committed to computing infrastructure that reduces both the costs and the environmental impact of the world’s expanding digital economy. By unlocking stranded sources of energy to power crypto, cloud and data centers, we are creating a future for compute-intensive innovation that reduces emissions rather than adds to them.