Kraken Oil & Gas has engaged Crusoe Energy Systems Inc. to deploy 18 Digital Flare Mitigation (DFM) modules between three oil and gas production sites in eastern Montana and one site in North Dakota, the company said on Oct. 7.

The projects have been successfully deployed and are operating in the field currently. Cumulatively, Kraken’s DFM projects reduce natural gas flaring by millions of cubic feet per day, significantly curtail emissions, and provide an innovative beneficial use for otherwise flared natural gas.

Kraken is the largest producer of Bakken oil in the state of Montana, and is also very active in North Dakota. In total, the company produces about 40,000 barrels of oil per day from roughly 320 wells. In Montana the company produces an estimated 10,000 barrels of oil per day from roughly 60 wells. The majority of Kraken’s wells sell gas into traditional pipelines for processing at gas plants around the basin; however, a portion of the company’s acreage is located in areas where pipeline capacity is limited or unavailable. In these areas, Kraken has deployed Crusoe’s DFM solution to capture gas that would otherwise be stranded or flared.

“Kraken has always embraced innovation and technology to improve our operations,” Bruce Larsen, president and CEO of Kraken, said. “It has never been more important for oil and gas companies to demonstrate a commitment to environmental excellence. Flare mitigation with Crusoe’s technology has become a centerpiece of our environmental innovation and ESG strategy at sites with otherwise stranded natural gas. Crusoe continues to impress us with their reliability, safety standards and support. We feel proud of the work our companies are doing together to reduce flaring and emissions in Montana and North Dakota.”

Crusoe installs modular computing systems powered entirely by gas that was otherwise being flared. In the current environment of challenging oil and gas economics, Crusoe’s solution offers a low or no cost solution to flaring which produces an additional revenue stream for oilfield operators from gas that was previously not captured. The systems are modular and scalable, which allows Crusoe to mitigate flaring at almost any scale from tens of thousands to millions of cubic feet per day. As a result, Crusoe’s clients range from publicly traded oil and gas firms to private companies, like Kraken.

“People sometimes talk about technology as though it only happens in Silicon Valley,” Alan Olson, executive director at Montana Petroleum Association, said. “These Digital Flare Mitigation projects are an excellent reminder of the incredible ingenuity and technological sophistication within the oil and gas industry here in Montana. Here is a set of mobile, modular data centers that capture otherwise wasted natural gas to power energy-intensive computation directly at the wellhead. Crusoe’s deployments with Kraken are the first of their kind in Montana, but I would not be surprised if additional operators deploy similar projects in due course.”

Onshore