The government of Greenland has delayed an American company’s plans to begin drilling in the Arctic territory, but officials remain unconvinced by its revised timeline for beginning the project.
Greenland Energy, a Texas-based firm with links to President Donald Trump, is engaged in a joint venture to drill a “highly prospective” basin in Greenland. But the company received a “strong warning” from Greenlandic authorities after beginning to transport equipment to the semiautonomous Danish territory ahead of planned drilling this winter.
The government said that those involved had failed to obtain the necessary approvals for doing so, and that the project’s complexity demanded a more comprehensive regulatory review before drilling could begin.
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A similar announcement had earlier been issued by Greenland Energy’s partner in the joint venture, 80 Mile, which holds, through a subsidiary, the license to the land in question.
“The company continues to work closely with the relevant authorities and will provide a further update on the timing of the drilling programme once there is greater certainty around the permitting process,” the British firm said in an update. “Current guidance by the regulators is for winter 2027 drilling.”
But Greenland’s Mineral Resources Authority said it is still processing and awaiting documentation from the licensee related to the drilling program. And when approached for comment, Jørgen T. Hammeken-Holm, Greenland’s permanent secretary for Mineral Resources, told Newsweek the winter 2027 timeline was only “maybe” realistic, and said it was “hard to tell” when drilling could commence. However, he said Greenland was confident no drilling would begin until all necessary permissions had been received.
Newsweek has contacted Greenland Energy and 80 Mile via email for comment and awaits response.
What Is Greenland Energy?
The Texas-based company was created last year and is focused on unlocking what it calls Greenland’s “vast hydrocarbon potential through innovative exploration.” Its primary focus is the 8,100-kilometer-squared Jameson Land Basin, described by the company as “one of, if not the last, highly prospective, yet completely undrilled basins globally, but with a clear genetic link to the North Sea as well as a scale similar to many of the world’s major producing regions.”
Robert Price, Greenland Energy’s CEO, has in the past estimated that around $1 trillion worth of oil could be sitting underneath the basin.
In 2021, Greenland’s government announced that it would stop issuing new oil and gas exploration licenses and effectively banned the practice over environmental concerns. However, the Jameson Land project has been made possible thanks to a license granted before this moratorium.
While 80 Mile holds the license through its subsidiary, White Flame Energy, Greenland Energy has assumed a majority stake in the venture in exchange for $60 million in funding and will carry out the “technical planning, operational readiness, logistics, and overall project coordination.”
The company boasts several links to the current U.S. administration. Carol Craig, a director, leads a defense tech firm working on Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system, while Phil McGraw—the TV personality and Trump ally better known as Dr. Phil—has been tasked with hosting a six-part documentary about Greenland Energy’s “historic Jameson Land Basin project.”
Why Is the Project Being Delayed?
“The exploration for oil by Greenland Energy is relatively unproblematic,” Lukas Wahden, an associate fellow in the Russia Program at George Washington University, told France 24 earlier this week. “The issue that caused political controversy last week is that the U.S. company Greenland Energy didn’t coordinate with the relevant Greenlandic authorities in its disembarking of equipment for the exploration that is planned in East Greenland.”
Hammeken-Holm told Newsweek the company had obtained a permit to move equipment, but that this had expired, and that it attempted to do so before the new permit had been processed.
As well as drilling itself, Greenland’s government has said “preparatory activities” such as the landing of drilling equipment and the establishment of a camp in the permit area” cannot begin until a Societal Sustainability Assessment (SIA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) have been completed. It notes that the project is still in its first phase, and that there are several steps still required—including preliminary studies and public hearings—before the company can commence with the drilling.
Greenland Energy has said that project will initially be scaled back to one well rather than two, which it described as the “most responsible course of action,” and the companies are now targeting a permitting timeline for winter 2027.
80 Mile’s executive director, Rod McIllree, said the company was “disappointed that the timing of the Jameson drilling programme has been impacted,” but that it remains “fully committed to advancing this highly prospective project.”
The winter 2027 start date is also later than that envisioned by the Trump administration, which remains committed to acquiring the territory for the U.S. In May, Jeff Landry, the Louisiana governor Trump appointed as his special envoy to Greenland, told Fox News that the territory “could be exporting 2 million barrels of oil a day right now,” and that oil production could realistically begin “within 10 months or so.”
Greenland’s SIA process alone can take four to 12 months, while the EIA involves extensive studies and can take years to prepare. Both require public consultation of at least eight weeks, making a winter 2027 drilling start ambitious from the project’s stage.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton and James Debens