Greenland’s self-rule authorities have blocked American company Greenland Energy from drilling for oil in eastern Greenland this year, saying the necessary permits cannot be ready before next year.
DR reports that Greenland’s Department of Raw Materials announced on Wednesday that the required approvals will not be in place before 2027. Greenland Energy had planned to begin drilling in eastern Greenland in the autumn. The decision ends that timeline.
The department’s permanent secretary for raw materials, Jørgen Hammeken-Holm, has sharply criticized the company’s conduct. According to DR, he said this is not the way to act in Greenland, and that the authorities will not tolerate it. His interview took place before Wednesday’s announcement on permits.
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The criticism follows an incident in which containers of camp equipment for oil exploration were landed in eastern Greenland by close partners of Greenland Energy without permission. Within hours of the news becoming public, the department issued what it called a strong warning. The company apologized and described it as a misunderstanding, but Hammeken-Holm said he believes it was deliberate.
The target area is Nunap Qeqqa, also known as Jameson Land, in one of the most remote parts of eastern Greenland. Greenland Energy has said the subsoil may hold up to 13 billion barrels of oil. Several experts have questioned how realistic that figure is, according to DR.
In the spring, the company’s American director, Robert Price, arrived by helicopter in the nearby town of Ittoqqortoormiit, which has 328 residents, and held a public meeting in the community hall. As reported by Danwatch and TV 2, representatives of a local committee initially asked the company for a heated pool and an expansion of the town’s sports hall in return for the drilling. TV 2 noted that those demands were dismissed by others as naive.
Broad opposition has since developed, with demonstrations in several Greenlandic towns. A local hunting officer later told KNR that local hunters had turned down 100,000 kroner a month to stand guard at drilling sites, partly to keep polar bears away.
Greenland Energy and its partners have said they are preparing to ship 300 containers and a drilling rig to Greenland soon. Hammeken-Holm told DR that the authorities have the means to stop any further activity without permits, and that the practical details are being clarified. He has previously said to KNR that the Danish military’s Joint Arctic Command could become involved.
DR put follow-up questions about the use of the Joint Arctic Command, but Hammeken-Holm declined to comment further, citing security and foreign policy matters. He has worked in the sector since 1998 and said he has never seen anything similar.
Hammeken-Holm also said that public accounts of an imminent oil boom have been heavily exaggerated, and he called it misinformation. The effect on the local population is significant, he told DR, because it is hard for residents to know what is true.
