Veteran oilman Robert Value was regaled with tales of dogsledding and adventures in Greenland as a baby from his father who served as a navy weatherman there throughout World Warfare II.
These tales stored the huge, icy North American territory in his thoughts till this 12 months. After a sequence of still-pending offers, Value will quickly grow to be the CEO of Texas-based Greenland Vitality, the primary publicly traded firm created to drill for oil onshore in Greenland, The primary properly is tentatively scheduled for subsequent summer season.
Pristine Greenland is probably house to one of many world’s largest oilfield reserves. Nevertheless it’s additionally the sparsely populated territory that U.S. President Trump desires to annex for strategic geopolitical and navy functions—very a lot towards the needs of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark that oversees the autonomous territory. Greenland, with its quickly melting ice sheet, is also an instance of world local weather change largely attributable to fossil fuels. And the challenge is profiting from a loophole in Greenlandic legislation supposed to ban oil drilling.
“I’ve drilled for hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil whereas drilling wildcat wells my complete life, however I’ve by no means had the chance to drill for billions of barrels of oil,” Value advised Fortune. “It’s actually a rare alternative.”
Value and govt chairman Larry Swets aren’t tone deaf. They’re conscious about the political and environmental sensitivities which have thrust quiet Greenland into the headlines this 12 months. Their effort will not be associated to American annexation, they insist, and, whereas any oil manufacturing has an environmental impression, this can be a comparatively small-scale challenge in japanese Greenland distant from the inhabitants.
“Whatever the total political local weather on the market, I imagine that the Greenland individuals need to know whether or not or not they’ve one of many largest oilfields on the earth,” Value stated.
They hope potential traders are enthused sufficient to agree. There may be apparent threat, Swets stated, however the potential upside is big. “This isn’t only a hope and a prayer. There’s a direct hyperlink out of your capital to potential oil manufacturing, and that’s a fairly favorable risk-reward from my perspective,” Swets stated.
Value and Swets are betting their prices finally will show decrease than the business common as a result of they’re drilling old-school, typical wells that go straight down—not the fashionable, complicated horizontal drilling and fracking concerned within the U.S. shale increase. Nevertheless, vitality analysts level to the excessive prices of organising in a brand new distant setting in harsh climate with out native infrastructure, labor, or gear. Then there are the added bills with exporting the oil and fuel—the demand is all worldwide, stated Lewis Lawrence, senior analyst with the Wooden Mackenzie vitality analysis agency. And it definitely doesn’t assist that the timing coincides with low oil prices amid a global glut.
“It’s shocking. It’s high-risk, high-reward,” Lawrence stated. “They have to go after huge targets. If it comes by means of, then it may very well be an thrilling challenge. There usually are not many basins globally which might be undrilled. However historical past tells you in Greenland, based mostly on the shortage of success thus far, there’s additionally a very good likelihood that it does go bust. That’s why it’s a high-risk, frontier exploration program.”
Lengthy historical past, lack of outcomes
That historical past of Greenland oil goes again greater than 50 years. Recent off the huge Prudhoe Bay oil discovery in Alaska within the late Sixties, the Atlantic Richfield Co., higher often called ARCO—later acquired by BP—recognized offshore Greenland as a prime oil prospect within the Seventies.
ARCO and others spent greater than $100 million on seismic surveying and assessments of Greenland with plans to develop oil and fuel within the territory. However, after some preliminary drilling pilot packages have been unsuccessful, goals of Greenland’s black gold fell by the wayside when the oil business infamously went bust within the ’80s.
The scientific case for exploration dates again many hundreds of thousands of years to continental drift when Greenland was believed to be intently linked to Norway and the British Isles. Analysis has proven that oil seepage from Greenland is corresponding to the worldwide benchmark high quality of Brent oil from Norway’s mature North Sea.
Smaller efforts popped up in Greenland over time, however nothing got here to fruition. The UK’s Cairn Vitality—now Capricorn Vitality—deserted the newest drilling effort in 2011 after combined, largely failed outcomes.
Almost all of those initiatives have been offshore although, and Greenland Vitality is taking an onshore strategy. Regardless of a long time of geological examine, japanese Greenland’s Jameson Land Basin stays fully undrilled till probably subsequent summer season.
Value and Swets imagine Jameson may very well be the following Prudhoe Bay. They acquired all of ARCO’s historic seismic surveying information for the Jameson area, which helped them hone in on particular drilling areas. Getting the grandfathered drilling licenses—emphasis on “grandfathered”—into one consolidated firm is trickier, however manageable because of a sequence of rapid-fire, convoluted offers.
Final 12 months, London-based Bluejay Mining acquired London’s White Flame Vitality, altering its identify to 80 Mile to mirror the enlargement of the enterprise mannequin to incorporate oil and fuel.
White Flame was based over a decade in the past to probe for oil and fuel in Greenland. No improvement got here to move, however the firm critically received three licenses for exploration within the Jameson basin. The licenses acquired three-year extensions in 2024 previous to the 80 Mile deal.
Citing local weather change issues and the melting ice sheet, Greenland applied a moratorium on oil and fuel drilling in 2021—seemingly bringing all oil goals to an finish—however the authorities agreed that White Flame’s licenses have been grandfathered and remained legitimate. The federal government confirmed the legality of the licenses to Fortune, however declined interview requests.
Seeing a chance, Value began Texas-based March GL and, in April, he partnered with 80 Mile for the licenses. March GL leads the operations whereas 80 Mile retains a 30% stake within the challenge.
“We now have the one onshore licenses in all of Greenland,” Value boasted.
Because of mutual pals at ThinkEquity, Value and Swets met early this 12 months and hit it off. Swets, who has experience with special-purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs), fashioned Greenland Exploration along with his funding and service provider banking agency, FG Nexus, and agreed to merge with March GL and discover a appropriate SPAC to take the corporate public.
In September, they agreed to be acquired by a SPAC, Pelican Acquisition Corp., in a reverse merger, which is able to take the pending Greenland Vitality Co. public at a $215 million implied valuation when and if the deal closes.
The one downside is the continuing authorities shutdown might delay the supposed December time limit to January or so, they stated.
Is the oil truly reachable?
This month, the staff started touchdown gear to start out constructing the 3-mile street from the coast to the primary properly. Street development is predicted to start early subsequent 12 months. Subsequent summer season, the plan is for a barge to deliver over the drilling rig to start out the primary properly. A second pilot properly is scheduled for fall 2026.
The staff already is contracted with oilfield companies large Halliburton, IPT Nicely Options, and Stampede Drilling.
The goal is to drill the primary properly slowly, coming into 5 completely different geologic zones and testing for oil and fuel in every of them. “As soon as we’re hopefully lucky to find an oilfield, the prices will definitely come down,” Value argued.
A 2008 U.S. Geological Survey report on japanese Greenland estimated there are recoverable reserves of 31.4 billion barrels of oil equal, which might make the area one of many world’s prime oil and fuel basins.
Nevertheless, whereas close by, practically all of the estimated reserves are in offshore waters, and the estimate doesn’t rely potential volumes from the close by Jameson Land Basin. The report particularly states, “The Jameson Land Basin [was] thought-about to have lower than a ten% likelihood of containing a technically recoverable hydrocarbon accumulation.”
Value contends the Jameson portion of the USGS report is outdate and inaccurate, pointing to a way more current 2025 third-party assessment from Sproule ERCE vitality consultants that estimates the Jameson basin might maintain 9 billion web barrels of recoverable crude oil. The brand new report contends the primary two wells, if profitable, might produce greater than 1.2 billion barrels of oil mixed, with upside of as excessive as a mixed 4 billion barrels.
“We all know the oil is there. The query is, ‘The place is it trapped?’” Value stated. “This isn’t a one in 10 shot. It is a very excessive proportion of discovering what may very well be one of many largest oilfields on the earth.”
Vitality analyst Lewis Lawrence finds it attention-grabbing that the federal government prolonged the exploration licenses final 12 months, regardless of the moratorium. The political winds in Greenland pushing for independence from Denmark appear to lean extra in favor of welcoming the oil sector in some type, he stated.
“There appears to be just a little little bit of flip-flopping internally with Greenland as to whether or not they wish to progress with some form of oil and fuel future or not,” Lawrence stated.
And, whereas Greenland Vitality might characterize a longshot bid, Lawrence added, “If a sufficiently big discovery have been made, then it might compete globally.”
