A Texas oil company with ties to people close to former President Donald Trump is pushing back its drilling plans in Greenland by more than a year.
On Wednesday, Greenland Energy Co. announced a revised schedule, aiming to secure necessary permits by winter 2027 to drill in the Jameson Land Basin on Greenland's east coast. The delay comes just two weeks after Greenland's government formally warned the company's partner, London-listed 80 Mile, about bringing drilling equipment to the coast without proper approval.
The warning centered on equipment landed near Nerlerit Inaat Airport, a key entry point to northeast Greenland. The companies said they had permission and a lease for storage at an existing facility, but did not realize the mineral-resources authority also needed to issue a separate permit.
The timing is awkward for a project with high ambitions. Greenland Energy calls the licensed onshore area a 2-million-acre stretch, among the very few highly prospective basins in the world that have never been drilled. The geology is linked to the North Sea, and the size rivals major producing regions.
But the ground is also politically sensitive. The licenses were issued before Greenland stopped granting new ones in 2021 because of the worsening climate crisis. And the drilling push comes as Trump again pushes for the U.S. to acquire Greenland.
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The company has notable connections. Board member Carol Craig started a defense-tech business involved in a Pentagon contract effort backing Trump's Golden Dome missile defense. Chairman Larry Swets has been reported to have close ties to Trump's inner circle. The company also has a documentary agreement with Envoy Media, launched by Dr. Phil McGraw, who spoke at a 2024 Trump rally.
In June, the Guardian reported that someone at a meeting about the basin asked CEO Robert Price if Swets was connected to Trump. Price answered that he knew of no such ties.
The market reacted harshly to the news.
Wood Mackenzie analyst Lewis Lawrence gave a skeptical view of the project's odds.
"There has been exploration in Greenland in the past [and] that's all been unsuccessful," Lawrence told CNBC. "So, companies have had a look. They've come, they've drilled, they've not found anything and they've left."
He also described the basin as an extremely remote drilling location with logistical challenges, calling it "one of the hotbeds of oil and gas activity" in terms of difficulty.
However, the region's harsh Arctic conditions and lack of infrastructure have historically been a challenge.
The separate permit requirement for equipment landing was an oversight that forced the delay. The companies had secured a lease for storage at an existing facility near the airport, but the mineral-resources authority's approval was not obtained in advance. This misstep illustrates the regulatory complexity of operating in Greenland, where the government has been tightening oversight since halting new licenses in 2021. For Greenland Energy, the extra time will allow it to align all necessary approvals before beginning drilling operations.
The bottom line: The delay gives Greenland Energy time to fix its permitting issues, but the fundamental math remains the same. The company holds three licenses and funds management of two exploration wells, but exploration in Greenland has all been unsuccessful. Investors are pricing in that reality.
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