Veteran oilman Robert Value was regaled with tales of dogsledding and adventures in Greenland as a toddler from his father who served as a navy weatherman there throughout World Conflict II.
These tales stored the large, icy North American territory in his thoughts till this 12 months. After a collection of still-pending offers, Value will quickly turn into 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 house to one of many world’s largest oilfield reserves. However it’s additionally the sparsely populated territory that U.S. President Trump desires to annex for strategic geopolitical and navy 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 world local weather change largely brought on by fossil fuels. And the venture is benefiting from a loophole in Greenlandic legislation supposed to ban oil drilling.
“I’ve drilled for millions of barrels of oil while drilling wildcat wells my whole life, but I’ve never had the opportunity to drill for billions of barrels of oil,” Value advised Fortune. “It’s truly an extraordinary opportunity.”
Value and government 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 shouldn’t be associated to American annexation, they insist, and, whereas any oil manufacturing has an environmental influence, this can be a comparatively small-scale venture in japanese Greenland distant from the inhabitants.
“Regardless of the overall political climate out there, I believe that the Greenland people deserve to know whether or not they have one of the largest oilfields in the world,” Value stated.
They hope potential traders are enthused sufficient to agree. There’s apparent danger, Swets stated, however the potential upside is big. “This isn’t just a hope and a prayer. There’s a direct link from your capital to potential oil production, and that’s a pretty favorable risk-reward from my perspective,” Swets stated.
Value 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 fashionable, difficult horizontal drilling and fracking concerned within the U.S. shale growth. Nevertheless, vitality analysts level to the excessive prices of establishing in a brand new distant surroundings in harsh climate with out native infrastructure, labor, or gear. Then there are the added bills with exporting the oil and gasoline—the demand is all worldwide, stated Lewis Lawrence, senior analyst with the Wooden Mackenzie vitality analysis agency. And it actually doesn’t assist that the timing coincides with low oil costs amid a worldwide glut.
“It’s surprising. It’s high-risk, high-reward,” Lawrence stated. “They must go after big targets. If it comes through, then it could be an exciting project. There are not many basins globally that are undrilled. But history tells you in Greenland, based on the lack of success so far, there’s also a good chance 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 Sixties, the Atlantic Richfield Co., higher often known as 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 gasoline within the territory. However, after some preliminary drilling pilot applications 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 hundreds of thousands 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 similar 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 newest drilling effort in 2011 after blended, largely failed outcomes.
Almost all of those initiatives had been offshore although, and Greenland Vitality is taking an onshore strategy. Regardless of many years of geological research, japanese Greenland’s Jameson Land Basin stays fully undrilled till doubtlessly subsequent summer time.
Value and Swets consider Jameson might be the following Prudhoe Bay. They acquired all of ARCO’s historic seismic surveying knowledge for the Jameson area, which helped them hone in on particular drilling places. Getting the grandfathered drilling licenses—emphasis on “grandfathered”—into one consolidated firm is trickier, however manageable because of a collection of rapid-fire, convoluted offers.
Final 12 months, London-based Bluejay Mining acquired London’s White Flame Vitality, altering its title to 80 Mile to replicate the growth of the enterprise mannequin to incorporate oil and gasoline.
White Flame was based over a decade in the past to probe for oil and gasoline in Greenland. No improvement got here to go, 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 considerations and the melting ice sheet, Greenland applied a moratorium on oil and gasoline 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, 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 venture.
“We have the only onshore licenses in all of Greenland,” Value boasted.
Because of mutual buddies at ThinkEquity, Value and Swets met early this 12 months and hit it off. Swets, who has experience with special-purpose acquisition firms (SPACs), shaped Greenland Exploration together 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 can take the pending Greenland Vitality Co. public at a $215 million implied valuation when and if the deal closes.
The one downside is the continued authorities shutdown may delay the supposed December cut-off date to January or so, they stated.
Is the oil really reachable?
This month, the group started touchdown gear to start out constructing the 3-mile street from the coast to the primary properly. Highway building is anticipated to start early subsequent 12 months. Subsequent summer time, the plan is for a barge to carry over the drilling rig to start out the primary properly. A second pilot properly is scheduled for fall 2026.
The group already is contracted with oilfield providers large Halliburton, IPT Nicely Options, and Stampede Drilling.
The intention is to drill the primary properly slowly, coming into 5 completely different geologic zones and testing for oil and gasoline in every of them. “Once we are hopefully fortunate to discover an oilfield, the costs will certainly 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 may make the area one of many world’s prime oil and gasoline basins.
Nevertheless, whereas close by, almost 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] considered to have less than a 10% chance 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 latest 2025 third-party evaluation from Sproule ERCE vitality consultants that estimates the Jameson basin may maintain 9 billion web barrels of recoverable crude oil. The brand new report contends the primary two wells, if profitable, may produce greater than 1.2 billion barrels of oil mixed, with upside of as excessive as a mixed 4 billion barrels.
“We know the oil is there. The question is, ‘Where is it trapped?’” Value stated. “This is not a one in 10 shot. This is a very high percentage of discovering what could be one of the largest oilfields in the world.”
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 seems to be a little bit of flip-flopping internally with Greenland as to whether they want to progress with some kind of oil and gas future or not,” Lawrence stated.
And, whereas Greenland Vitality could symbolize a longshot bid, Lawrence added, “If a big enough discovery were made, then it could compete globally.”
