Giga Energy, a Bitcoin miner based in Texas, has expanded its operations to Argentina, aiming to leverage wasted energy from "natural gas flaring" in the country's oil fields.

Brent Whitehead, co-founder of Giga, hailed this expansion as a significant achievement for the company in a LinkedIn post on March 26, emphasizing its alignment with their global vision to address flaring issues.

Gas flaring, which involves burning natural gas associated with oil extraction, releases methane. Giga converts this methane into electricity to power its Bitcoin mining rigs.

The expansion involves deploying thousands of Bitcoin miners in a large shipping container atop an oil well, redirecting excess gas into generators, and utilizing the energy to mine Bitcoin, as reported by CNBC on March 26.

Giga's mining site in Argentina's Mendoza province has been in a testing phase since December, already mining between $200,000 and $250,000 worth of Bitcoin, according to Matt Lohstroh, another co-founder.

However, full-scale operation awaits the import of necessary equipment, with profitability expected only after that.

Argentina possesses the world's second-largest shale gas reserve, per a recent academic paper from the University of Michigan, making it an ideal location for such endeavors.

Giga's initiative not only reduces methane emissions but also involves collaboration with Exa Tech for onsite operations and Phoenix Global Resources for gas supply.

Having launched its Bitcoin mining operations in 2019, Giga currently operates 150 megawatts of containers in Texas and Shanghai, CNBC reported.

This expansion coincides with Bitcoin mining firms preparing for the upcoming halving event, which will reduce the Bitcoin reward to miners and potentially shift global hash rates to countries with cheaper electricity rates, as noted by Hashlabs Mining's Jaran Mellerud. Argentina and Paraguay are considered promising destinations for Bitcoin mining in South America.