Searching for 13 Billion Barrels of Oil in East Greenland
Source: iStock.com/peshkov
The privately owned Texas-based Greenland Energy Company hopes to find 13 billion barrels (approximately 1.77 billion to 1.79 billion metric tons) of oil in Jameson Land in East Greenland this summer. If drilling results confirm these estimates, the oil field could become the third largest in the Arctic, after Yamal and Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay Oil Field.
Yamal holds the largest oil reserves in the Arctic. The region has 4.1 billion tons of oil reserves, and current recoverable oil reserves in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug are estimated at 4.9 billion tons.
The largest conventional oil field in the US Arctic is the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field on Alaska’s North Slope. Discovered in 1968, it originally contained approximately 25 billion barrels of oil (3.28 billion to 3.4 billion metric tons), serving as the largest oil field in North America.
The Arctic already supplies the world with roughly 10 percent of its oil and 25 percent of its natural gas, mostly from onshore sources. It is also estimated to hold 22 percent of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and natural gas reserves.
With current global oil production at approximately 100 million barrels per day, the East Greenland oil field, if its reserves are confirmed, could meet global oil consumption for 130 days.
On the road to a potentially stunning success, the brave Texans, however, will face the uncertainty of exploratory drilling results and confirmation of gigantic oil reserves. Geologists are adamant in their assessments: oil is present, but approximately 40 times less than the Americans believe.
If large and profitable oil reserves, however, are confirmed, the US oil company faces a tedious and unpredictable legal battle with Greenlandic authorities, who in 2021 imposed a ban on issuing new oil exploration and production licenses as part of the global green transition. The prospects for oil production are also difficult to predict due to the uncertain outlook for relations between Greenland, Denmark, and the US.
The North Observer will cover the further development of this venture.
A Huge Oil Adventure
A huge oil adventure awaits in Jameson Land. At least that’s what the director of the American company Greenland Energy Company thinks. The man’s name is Robert B. Price. This year he hopes to find 13 billion barrels of oil in Jameson Land.
In October 2025, he traveled to Tasiilaq surrounded by drilling equipment, technology and personnel, which are expected to be sailed to Jameson Land this summer.
The equipment was supplied by the controversial company Halliburton. The company has been linked to environmental disasters and the oil war in Iraq.
However, KNR has spoken to sources who, at best, call finding so much oil optimistic.
Uncertain Data
According to a 2022 report from GEUS, Nunaoil and the Greenlandic government, there are only 350 million barrels of oil.
Thomas Varming is a geologist and currently the head of GEUS’s office in Nuuk. He helped prepare the aforementioned report for Nunaoil.
The geologist says that the report’s oil findings are subject to great statistical uncertainty.
However, he believes that Greenland Energy Company’s mention of 13 billion barrels of oil is subject to even greater uncertainty.
“The figures the company uses are not ones you would typically use,” says Thomas Varming.
The expert says that there is an assessment of the oil deposits on Jameson Land that only gives a 10 percent chance that there are 13 billion barrels of oil.
“That is a number that is called too optimistic. Typically, one would go with the assessment called 90 percent probability.”
Head of Department Supports
KNR has spoken with Head of Department for Minerals and Industry, Jørgen Hammeken-Holm.
He says that Greenland Energy Company has taken over the exploration and extraction licenses from the company White Flame on Jameson Land.
Like Thomas Varming, the head of department estimates that there is a small probability that the Americans’ dreams of an oil adventure will become reality.
“I would say that there is a high risk that nothing will be found,” says Jørgen Hammeken-Holm.
Even if the Americans find a large oil deposit, there is a long way to go before the company comes to the market.
At best, it will take between five and ten years, estimates Jørgen Hammeken-Holm.
He justifies the estimate by saying that the company must first obtain the necessary papers in the form of environmental approvals, shutdown plans and so on.
“If they find something, they must comply with all our requirements and conditions and things like that, then they are also allowed to extract it.”
At the moment, there is talk that Greenland Energy Company will drill two wells to check for oil deposits.
Oil Ban
In July 2021, the then Greenlandic government consisting of Inuit Ataqatigiit and Naleraq introduced an oil ban.
Now, an end should be put to oil exploration. Instead, the focus should be on renewable energy.
KNR has therefore asked Jørgen Hammeken-Holm how Greenland Energy Company can continue to explore for oil and invest in a possible future oil industry in East Greenland.
“I don’t see that the ban affects them at first,” says Jørgen Hammeken-Holm and continues:
“They are allowed to explore. That is indisputable. And if they find something, they are also allowed to extract it—if they comply with all our demands and conditions.”
The department head stresses that the oil ban should be understood separately from uranium legislation.
He says that the oil ban is a political decision, where they have chosen to close all future applications for oil extraction and exploration.
But this does not apply to the exploration permits that have already been granted.
Sources:
- KNR (in Danish)
- Arctic WWF
