Veteran oilman Robert Worth was regaled with tales of dogsledding and adventures in Greenland as a baby from his father who served as a army weatherman there throughout World Warfare II.
These tales stored the large, icy North American territory in his thoughts till this 12 months. After a sequence of still-pending offers, Worth 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 time.
Pristine Greenland is doubtlessly dwelling to one of many world’s largest oilfield reserves. But it surely’s additionally the sparsely populated territory that U.S. President Trump needs to annex for strategic geopolitical and army functions—very a lot in opposition to the desires of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark that oversees the autonomous territory. Greenland, with its quickly melting ice sheet, is also an instance of worldwide local weather change largely brought on by fossil fuels. And the undertaking is profiting from a loophole in Greenlandic regulation supposed to ban oil drilling.
“I’ve drilled for tens of millions 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,” Worth instructed Fortune. “It’s actually a rare alternative.”
Worth and govt chairman Larry Swets aren’t tone deaf. They’re aware of the political and environmental sensitivities which have thrust quiet Greenland into the headlines this 12 months. Their effort is just not associated to American annexation, they insist, and, whereas any oil manufacturing has an environmental influence, it is a comparatively small-scale undertaking in jap Greenland distant from the inhabitants.
“Whatever the total political local weather on the market, I consider that the Greenland folks should know whether or not or not they’ve one of many largest oilfields on the earth,” Worth mentioned.
They hope potential traders are enthused sufficient to agree. There’s apparent threat, Swets mentioned, however the potential upside is large. “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 reasonably favorable risk-reward from my perspective,” Swets mentioned.
Worth and Swets are betting their prices ultimately will show decrease than the business common as a result of they’re drilling old-school, typical wells that go straight down—not the trendy, sophisticated horizontal drilling and fracking concerned within the U.S. shale increase. Nonetheless, power analysts level to the excessive prices of establishing 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, mentioned Lewis Lawrence, senior analyst with the Wooden Mackenzie power analysis agency. And it actually doesn’t assist that the timing coincides with low oil costs amid a worldwide glut.
“It’s stunning. It’s high-risk, high-reward,” Lawrence mentioned. “They need to go after huge targets. If it comes via, then it might be an thrilling undertaking. There are usually not many basins globally which might be undrilled. However historical past tells you in Greenland, primarily based on the dearth of success to this point, there’s additionally a superb 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. Contemporary off the large Prudhoe Bay oil discovery in Alaska within the late Nineteen Sixties, the Atlantic Richfield Co., higher often known as ARCO—later acquired by BP—recognized offshore Greenland as a high oil prospect within the Nineteen 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 had been unsuccessful, desires 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 tens of millions of years to continental drift when Greenland was believed to be intently related 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 through the years, however nothing got here to fruition. The UK’s Cairn Vitality—now Capricorn Vitality—deserted the latest drilling effort in 2011 after blended, principally failed outcomes.
Almost all of those tasks had been offshore although, and Greenland Vitality is taking an onshore method. Regardless of a long time of geological research, jap Greenland’s Jameson Land Basin stays utterly undrilled till doubtlessly subsequent summer time.
Worth and Swets consider Jameson might be the subsequent 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 due to 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 replicate the growth 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 growth got here to move, however the firm critically gained 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 desires to an finish—however the authorities agreed that White Flame’s licenses had been grandfathered and remained legitimate. The federal government confirmed the legality of the licenses to Fortune, however declined interview requests.
Seeing a possibility, Worth 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 undertaking.
“We now have the one onshore licenses in all of Greenland,” Worth boasted.
Because of mutual buddies at ThinkEquity, Worth 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 mentioned.
Is the oil really reachable?
This month, the crew started touchdown gear to begin constructing the 3-mile highway from the coast to the primary properly. Street development is predicted to start early subsequent 12 months. Subsequent summer time, the plan is for a barge to deliver over the drilling rig to begin the primary properly. A second pilot properly is scheduled for fall 2026.
The crew already is contracted with oilfield providers large Halliburton, IPT Nicely Options, and Stampede Drilling.
The goal is to drill the primary properly slowly, getting into 5 totally 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,” Worth argued.
A 2008 U.S. Geological Survey report on jap Greenland estimated there are recoverable reserves of 31.4 billion barrels of oil equal, which might make the area one of many world’s high oil and fuel basins.
Nonetheless, 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 of to have lower than a ten% likelihood of containing a technically recoverable hydrocarbon accumulation.”
Worth contends the Jameson portion of the USGS report is outdate and inaccurate, pointing to a way more current 2025 third-party evaluate from Sproule ERCE power 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?’” Worth mentioned. “This isn’t a one in 10 shot. This can be a very excessive share of discovering what might be one of many largest oilfields on the earth.”
Vitality analyst Lewis Lawrence finds it fascinating 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 mentioned.
“There appears to be a bit little bit of flip-flopping internally with Greenland as to whether or not they need to progress with some sort of oil and fuel future or not,” Lawrence mentioned.
And, whereas Greenland Vitality might signify a longshot bid, Lawrence added, “If a sufficiently big discovery had been made, then it might compete globally.”
