Greenland authorities have forced a US oil company connected to Donald Trump to postpone drilling wells in the Arctic territory, defying claims by the US president’s envoy that Americans could be extracting crude by next year.
Amid Trump’s imperialist threats, tensions have been rising on Greenland’s eastern coast after the oil company brought drilling equipment ashore in July without permission, drawing a “strong warning” from the government.
Just week before Greenland Energy intended to sink its first wells into the tundra, the government said on Thursday: “The necessary regulatory process cannot be completed, and the necessary approvals cannot therefore be obtained before the planned start of drilling.”
It said that during talks Greenlandic officials had expressed concern that the timetable was too tight to assess the environmental and social impact.
The authorities will have to decide whether to sanction drilling in a protected wetland that is home to rare birds and the muskoxen on which local hunters depend. At the earliest, drilling could now commence in the winter of 2027, the government and the company said. » | Tom Burgis | Wednesday, August 12, 2026
