Greenland government disputes oil company’s drilling permit claims

  • Greenland Energy told residents of the remote Greenland settlement Ittoqqortoormiit on June 10 that it holds permits to place drilling equipment on land in Jameson Land and has filed applications to drill.
  • Greenland’s minister for mineral resources, Múte B Egede, said the company’s statements “do not always reflect the actual situation” and that there are “no actually active permissions for any exploration activity.”
  • The company has chartered a vessel to transport equipment 4,000 kilometers through Arctic waters and plans to begin drilling in October, with Halliburton handling logistics.
  • Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, said on Fox News after a May visit that Greenland “could be exporting 2 million barrels of oil a day.”
  • The proposed wells lie within an area protected under the global Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, home to populations of barnacle geese, pink-footed geese, and other wildlife.

A Texas oil company whose backers include figures connected to President Donald Trump has told residents of a remote Greenland settlement that it holds permits to explore for oil in eastern Greenland — a claim the territory’s government has flatly denied.

Robert Price, an energy industry veteran representing Greenland Energy, told residents of Ittoqqortoormiit, a settlement of about 300 people in Jameson Land, on June 10 that he believes $1 trillion worth of crude lies beneath the area. “We have the permit to put the equipment on the land,” Price said through an interpreter, according to footage of the meeting. “And then we’ve filed our permits — pending approval — to drill.”

Greenland’s Ministry of Mineral Resources rejected that characterization. “There are no actually active permissions for any exploration activity or permissions for preparations for these activities,” the ministry said.

Greenland’s minister for mineral resources, Múte B Egede, said he could “understand if citizens are concerned” about the project’s connections to Trump. “Activities cannot be carried out until the necessary permits have been granted,” he said. “I must say again that the company’s statements to the public do not always reflect the actual situation.”

Greenland Energy is seeking to drill two wells in Jameson Land, a region closer to London than to Washington. The company was formed last year and is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York. It has pledged $60 million to fund the drilling in exchange for a majority stake in the project, exploiting exploration licenses that belong to a UK-registered company called 80 Mile. Those licenses are among a handful that remained valid after Greenland stopped issuing new oil exploration licenses in 2021, with a minister saying at the time that “the environmental consequences of oil exploration and extraction are too great.”

Greenland Energy has chartered an Arctic-going vessel to carry its equipment 4,000 kilometers through icy waters to Greenland’s eastern coast. Price said the vessel will depart on September 12, with drilling planned to begin in October. Halliburton, the Houston-based oil-services company once led by former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, will run the logistics.

The wells are expected to be drilled in an area protected under the global Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. David Boertmann, an expert on Greenland’s birds, said the conservation zone hosts important populations of barnacle geese, pink-footed geese, whimbrel, golden plover, Sabine’s gull, snowy owl, and muskoxen, and said oil exploration activities could threaten the birds’ habitat.

Greenland Energy’s connections to Trump have grown as the company amasses an eclectic array of Trump-linked backers. In April, Wall Street billionaire Kenneth Griffin, a Republican mega-donor who gave $1 million toward Trump’s second inauguration, bought 9% of Greenland Energy’s shares. In June, Carol Craig, a U.S. Navy veteran whose defense tech company Sidus Space is working on Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system, joined Greenland Energy’s board. Trump has said that controlling Greenland, home to the U.S. military’s Pituffik Space Base, is a “vital” part of the Golden Dome plan.

Also in June, Greenland Energy announced a deal with Phil McGraw’s Envoy Media. McGraw, better known as the TV personality Dr. Phil, spoke at a Trump rally in 2024 and later embedded with ICE agents enforcing Trump’s immigration enforcement policies. His latest venture, a documentary series about Greenland Energy, will air on cable and social media and, according to the company, will “capture the mission of these modern-day wildcatters.”

Larry Swets, a financier who is Greenland Energy’s executive chair and one of its biggest shareholders, acknowledged the company’s communications have caused problems. “Our enthusiasm for the project led us to communicate in a way that created confusion about who is responsible for what in Greenland — and that benefited no one, least of all the local communities closest to the project,” Swets said.

Greenland Energy’s stock market filings state that its plans can proceed only if Greenland’s government grants permission for drilling and for the company to take a stake in any oil extraction that follows. On a dedicated Telegram group, some shareholders have discussed hoping for what they call a “Trump pump” — a presidential endorsement that could raise the company’s stock price before any oil is actually drilled.

Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, said on Fox News after a May visit to Nuuk that “we need a deal” and that “Greenland could be exporting 2 million barrels of oil a day right now.” Landry, who says his task is to “make Greenland a part of the US,” added that “we could have those barrels on production within 10 months or so.”

At the NATO summit in Turkey this week, Trump renewed his call for the U.S. to wrest control of Greenland from Denmark. Avaaraq Olsen, the mayor of the region covering the capital Nuuk and extending east across Jameson Land, said she was “so afraid” that Americans striking oil could align with Trump’s plans. “We are like the most peaceful place on Earth,” Olsen said. “And we have always lived in peace and harmony. And suddenly there is all these Americans trying to take over.”