Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ after Texas oil company’s activity triggers annexation fears

The Greenland government has issued a “strong warning” after a U.S. oil company with ties to Donald Trump moved drilling equipment into position for a project that hasn’t received official approval, in what is being interpreted as a possible new front in Trump’s attempts to annex the autonomous and self-governing territory.

“The licensee did not have the necessary approvals from the mineral resources authority in place before initiating this operation,” the Ministry of Trade and Mineral Resources said in a July 30 release. That was after Texas-based Greenland Energy—a company founded last year with fewer than a dozen employees, according to its LinkedIn profile—moved the gear to a site on Nunap Qeqqa (Jameson Land Basin), a remote peninsula about halfway up Greenland’s eastern coast.

The company describes the area as “one of the largest underexplored conventional hydrocarbon basins in the Western world.”

While the “packed bed equipment” in question was just “a necessary small part of the drilling operation,” Greenland stressed that “a strong warning will be sent to the licensee with a warning that all future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the mineral resources authority—before they are carried out.”

That was a signal that Greenland Energy had “crossed a red line before even starting to drill,” France 24 writes.

It might sound like a small oversight or even an accidental error. But “by placing logistics elements in there, preparing for the drilling, it sends a signal that ‘we’re going to go ahead and do this with or without your approval’, ” Maj.  Gen. (Retd.) Scott Clancy, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and former NORAD director of operations,” told Global News. “Or we’ll ask for approval after we have it, which you’ll have no choice but to give.”

Either way, he added, “that sets a very difficult precedent as it pertains to the protection of sovereignty.”

Greenland “stopped issuing new oil licences in 2021 over environmental concerns,” Mediaite reports, in a post illustrated with a screengrab of Trump casting a covetous glare over a Greenlandic village. “But British company 80 Mile previously secured exploration rights in Jameson Land. Corporate filings show Greenland Energy plans to acquire a majority stake in that project in return for financing exploration, subject to government approval.”

In a shareholder update last week, the company said it was planning to drill exploratory wells over the winter of 2026-27. “Recent high-level meetings between project leadership and Greenlandic regulatory and oversight authorities have been constructive, and we continue to be encouraged by the progress being made toward the remaining approvals required for drilling,” the notice stated.

Greenland Energy chair and major shareholder Larry Swets, who “appears to enjoy access to Trump’s circle,” has said the drilling project is “not related to American annexation,” the Guardian writes. But also claimed at a community meeting in June that it had permission to bring drilling equipment ashore. “Our enthusiasm for the project led us to communicate in a way that created confusion,” Swets said at the time.

Permission or not, Trump’s envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, “has said Greenland could be pumping oil next year,” the Guardian says.

In a statement and sign-on that cited the Guardian story, Sierra Club Canada said Canadian firms will be helping Greenland Energy expand its footprint on Jameson Land, with 300 containers of drilling equipment scheduled to set sail from the Port of Valleyfield, Quebec Sept. 12.

“The Canadian Government must not allow Canadian corporations and Canadian ports to play a role in helping the U.S. and U.S. corporations force oil exploration and drilling onto Greenland,” Sierra said.

The project previously came to light in March, in a Canadian Press story that identified two Canadian companies—Estevan, Saskatchewan-based Stampede Drilling Inc., and Quebec City-based shipping and high Arctic hauling firm Groupe Desgagnés—that are supporting the project. The story quoted a promotional video shot on Jameson Land that shows oil naturally seeping out of the ground.

“It’ll be like the oilfields of the ’20s and ’30s and ’40s,” enthused Greenland Energy CEO Robert Price. “The pressure and the oil will actually come at you.”

Price added that he doesn’t see U.S. annexation as a serious risk for Greenland, CP writes.

“We are focused on respecting the Greenlandic people, their culture, their independence, and doing what our part is in helping them become more independent and revenue-generating,” he said, adding that interactions with local regulators have been positive.

Stampede Drilling did not reply to a contact form request for comment. Desgagnés Transarctik said it “acts as an independent provider of marine transportation services in connection with an industrial project in Greenland. Its mandate is limited to the transportation of cargo and the provision of related logistics services.”

Desgagnés “conducts its operations in strict compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and requirements in Canada and internationally,” the company told The Energy Mix in an email Monday evening. “Responsibility for the project rests with the project developer; any decisions regarding its authorization and implementation remain under the jurisdiction of the competent Greenlandic authorities.”