Licence to drill? How a Trump-linked Texas oil company is elbowing its way into Greenland

On 10 June, a snowy-haired American in his 60s addressed the residents of a remote Greenland hamlet. He was there to tell them about a business venture supported by figures linked to Donald Trump. “So,” Robert Price said via an interpreter, “we have a project to drill for oil here.”

The Texas oil company that Price represents, Greenland Energy, hopes to prove that billions of barrels of crude lie underground by bringing in 300 shipping containers of drilling kit.

“We have the permit to put the equipment on the land,” footage of the gathering in Ittoqqortoormiit shows Price saying. “And then we’ve filed our permits – pending approval – to drill.”

But Greenland’s resources ministry said that contrary to Price’s claim, there were “no actually active permissions for any exploration activity or permissions for preparations for these activities”.

The dispute threatens a showdown between the Trump-linked backers of Greenland Energy and the authorities in the vast, sparsely populated territory. Trump’s lieutenants are using the prospect of an American oil find in Greenland to bolster their case for an American takeover.

Jeff Landry, right, on a visit to Nuuk in May as Trump’s special envoy to Greenland. Landry said the territory ‘could be exporting 2m barrels of oil a day’. Photograph: Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty

The US president’s special envoy to Greenland, the hard-right Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, returned from a visit in May to declare on Fox News: “We need a deal. Greenland needs a deal. We could be – Greenland could be – exporting 2m barrels of oil a day right now.”

Landry, who says his task is to “make Greenland a part of the US”, added: “We could have those barrels on production within 10 months or so.”

Greenland Energy appears to be the only company making plans to drill in the territory. Despite seemingly not yet having permission, it has chartered an Arctic-going vessel to ferry its equipment 4,000km through icy waters to Greenland’s eastern coast.

Price, an energy industry veteran who has become the public face of the company, said the vessel would depart in two months, on 12 September, with drilling to begin in October. Halliburton, the giant Houston-based contractor once led by the former Republican vice-president Dick Cheney, will run the logistics.

Ever since Trump made his imperial desires for Greenland explicit, US business interests have been gaining footholds in its vast expanses. The ventures range from rare-earth minerals and hydroelectric power to bottling “luxury” spring water.

Greenlanders have watched nervously as Trump has exercised US military power and toyed with doing so in the Danish territory. The day after he sent special forces to snatch the leader of Venezuela, Trump said: “We do need Greenland, absolutely.” Trump cited oil as the reason the US needed to stamp its authority on Venezuela. The US has since extracted oil revenues of about $8bn with scant oversight.

Arriving at this week’s Nato summit in Turkey, Trump renewed his call for the US to wrest control of Greenland from Denmark.

Among those alarmed is Avaaraq Olsen, the mayor of the region that covers the capital, Nuuk, and extends east across Jameson Land, where the oil drilling is planned. She said she was “so afraid” that Americans striking oil could align with Trump’s plans.

“We are like the most peaceful place on Earth,” she said. “And we have always lived in peace and harmony. And suddenly there is all these Americans trying to take over.”

The coast of Jameson Land in north-east Greenland. Greenland Energy has chartered an Arctic-going vessel to ferry its equipment 4,000km through icy waters to Greenland’s eastern coast. Photograph: Biosphoto/Alamy

Licence to drill

Greenland stopped issuing licences to explore for oil in 2021 after 50 years of fruitless drilling. “The environmental consequences of oil exploration and extraction are too great,” a minister said at the time.

But a handful of licences remained valid. They included some covering a chunk of Jameson Land, a region closer to London than to Washington. These licences belong to a company registered in the UK called 80 Mile.

It is those licences that Greenland Energy, formed last year and listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York, is hoping to exploit by putting up $60m to drill two wells in exchange for a majority stake in the project.

Price has claimed that crude worth $1tn (£750bn) could lie beneath Jameson Land. “I believe it’s there,” he said during the meeting in Ittoqqortoormiit, a settlement of 300 people in Jameson Land. “The scientists believe that it’s there. But until we drill these wells, we don’t know.”

The wells are expected to be drilled in an area protected by the global Ramsar Convention to preserve wetlands, which hosts important populations of wildlife including muskoxen. Photograph: Biosphoto/Alamy

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

Greenland Energy’s stock market filings make clear that its plans can go ahead only if Greenland’s government grants permission for drilling and for it to take a stake in any oil extraction that follows.

Múte B Egede, Greenland’s minister for mineral resources, said Greenland Energy’s ‘statements to the public do not always reflect the actual situation’. Photograph: Mads Claus Rasmussen/EPA

There are signs that the government may be reluctant to do so. Days after Price’s comments, Greenland’s minister for mineral resources, Múte B Egede, said he could “understand if citizens are concerned” about the project’s connections to Trump.

He added: “Activities cannot be carried out until the necessary permits have been granted. I must say again that the company’s statements to the public do not always reflect the actual situation.”

Greenland Energy declined to respond to questions from the Guardian. But Larry Swets, a financier who is one of Greenland Energy’s biggest shareholders and serves as executive chair, has acknowledged: “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.”

The tundra of Jameson Land, which includes a conservation zone that is home to a number of bird populations. Photograph: Biosphoto/Alamy

Trump connections

At the Ittoqqortoormiit meeting, one person asked whether Swets had “close relations with Trump”. Price replied: “Not that I know of.”

Social media posts by Swets’s wife appear to show that this year she visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. Swets did not respond to questions about whether he had accompanied his wife to Trump’s Florida residence, which serves as a presidential court away from the White House.

Although Swets has said the oil project is “not related to American annexation”, Greenland Energy’s connections to the US president are growing, as the company amasses an eclectic array of Trump-linked backers.

In April, the Wall Street billionaire Kenneth Griffin bought 9% of Greenland Energy’s shares. Griffin is a Republican mega-donor and, despite criticising the Trumps’ self-enrichment, gave $1m towards the president’s second inauguration.

Then in June, a US Navy veteran, Carol Craig, joined Greenland Energy’s board. Sidus Space, the defence tech company she founded, is working on Trump’s Golden Dome missile defence system. Trump has said that controlling Greenland, home to the US armed forces’ space base at Pituffik, is a “vital” part of the Golden Dome plan.

The same month, Greenland Energy announced a deal with Phil McGraw’s Envoy Media. Better known as Dr Phil, the TV personality’s 20 years hosting a talkshow that spun out of Oprah Winfrey’s show made him a household name in the US.

Phil McGraw, right, better known as Dr Phil, is making a documetary series about Greenland Energy. Photograph: Abaca/Shutterstock

McGraw spoke at a Trump rally in 2024. After Trump’s victory, McGraw “embedded” himself with ICE agents enforcing Trump’s immigration crackdown. His latest venture, a documentary series about Greenland Energy, will be broadcast on cable and social media and, according to the company, will “capture the mission of these modern-day wildcatters”.

Discussing the prospect of oil with Swets and Price in a YouTube curtain-raiser, McGraw says: “We’ve heard Trump talk about buying Greenland and everybody laughed, but actually there is some real value to Greenland.”

Days later, McGraw was in the Oval Office with Trump, saying how honoured he was to serve on the president’s Religious Liberty Commission. “Thank you very much, Phil,” Trump said. “I appreciate your support.”

Some Greenland Energy shareholders are hoping the president will show similar appreciation for its Arctic oil exploration. On a dedicated Telegram group, they discuss what might send the company’s stock price higher. Referring to a presidential plug for the company that could make them richer before a drop of oil has been drilled, they are hoping to secure what they are calling a “Trump pump”.