- Greenland has put a halt to its 50-year attempt to become an oil producing nation.
- This comes after announcing it would stop granting exploration licences and suspend a strategy of searching for oil.
A recent news article published in the Offshore Energy by Bojan Lepic states that Greenland says ‘NO’ to further oil exploration and it focuses on renewable energy.
Oil exploration in Greenland
Oil exploration in Greenland has been a thing since the 1970s, involving major oil companies like Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Eni, but – unfortunately – most drilling was dry.
Greenland, which is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, has immense mineral wealth and a fantastic strategic location so former U.S. President Donald Trump even proposed to buy the Arctic island.
This was quickly dismissed by both the government of Greenland’s and Denmark. The new U.S. administration said earlier this year that it had no plan to buy the territory.
Country’s vast mineral potential
The Greenlandic government or Naalakkersuisut is still committed to developing the country’s vast mineral potential as long as it does not involve the extraction of uranium.
There is a draft bill under consultation which bans preliminary investigation, exploration, and extraction of uranium on the island.
The ban on uranium mining
The ban on uranium mining is rooted in a profound belief that business activities must take nature and the environment into account.
The government stated on Thursday that the same concerns are behind its decision to stop new oil and gas exploration.
Greenlandic underground contains large unexplored deposits of oil.
A study estimates that there is around $2.9 billion worth of de-risked barrels of oil on the west coast of Greenland.
Large deposits are also expected to hide below the seabed on the east coast of Greenland.
Price of oil extraction is high
However, the government stated that the price of oil extraction is too high. This is based on economic calculations and the possible impact on the climate and the environment.
As a result, Naalakkersuisut decided to cease issuing new licenses for oil and gas exploration in Greenland.
This step has been taken ‘for the sake of our nature, for the sake of our fisheries, for the sake of the tourism industry, and to focus [Greenland’s] business on sustainable potentials’.
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Source: Offshore Energy
