According to the Danish investigative outlet Danwatch, the American oil company Greenland Energy, closely tied to Donald Trump, landed drilling equipment on the east coast of Greenland without the authorities’ authorization.
The government of Nuuk reacted with a firm warning, noting that any logistical operation had to be approved in advance by the Mineral Resources Authority.
The chronology reconstructed today by The Guardian reveals a geopolitical masking strategy that exploits gaps in administrative and regulatory procedures to impose a fait accompli on the ground.
- In June, a representative of Greenland Energy wrongly claimed to already have the necessary green light. A misunderstanding that the Texas group’s president later attributed to an excess of “enthusiasm,” but which still leaves a trace on the company’s official X account: “The logistics dance has begun! This tug has left Denmark for Nuuk, before steering toward our project in the Jameson Land basin.”
- In July, without any official authorization, Greenland Energy’s operations began on the territory. A tug pulled a barge ashore at the Jameson Land coast and unloaded a dozen containers. The Greenlandic government said it would be “not proportionate” to demand their removal, while noting that the authorization request was still under review.
- The Greenland government halted issuing oil licenses in 2021 for ecological reasons, and the projected wells appear to fall within a Ramsar-protected wetland area.
Far from slowing down, the company has accelerated its timetable.
- A vessel carrying 300 containers of equipment is due to depart from Canada on September 12, and drilling of the first well is scheduled for October.
- The company posted on August 6 on its X account that “the commissioning of OPW-1 [the project code name for the first exploration well] remains targeted for Q4 2026.”
- Jeff Landry, Trump’s special envoy who aims to “make Greenland a part of the United States,” even went so far as to claim that Greenland Energy could begin oil extraction as early as next year.
The peculiarity of Greenland Energy lies in its closeness to the Trump-inspired annexation project for Greenland, which its president and major shareholder, Larry Swets, denies.
- Founded in 2025 in Texas and traded under the symbol GLND, the company asserts, without any independent study backing it, that $1 trillion worth of crude lies beneath the Jameson Land peninsula, to the island’s east.
- It plans to devote $60 million to it, after raising about $70 million for exploration.
Around this project orbit several figures close to the American president.
- It hired Phil McGraw, better known as the host of the television show “Dr. Phil,” who is now a member of the Commission on Religious Freedom sought by Donald Trump, to produce a documentary series about these “pioneers of modern times.”
- It has also appointed a former US Navy veteran, who works on the Golden Dome missile shield, which Trump deems “vital,” to its board.
The fait accompli places the Greenlandic autonomous government before two uncomfortable options.
- Granting the authorization would amount to overturning the 2021 ecological moratorium.
- Refusing could provide Trump with a pretext to reignite his pressure strategy on Greenland and Denmark.
This incident is part of a broader sequence of revisionist territorial expansion.
- The so-called Donroe doctrine of “hemispheric security” asserts that the United States should control its entire continental strategic environment, from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic, in response to China and Russia.
- It first became explicit when, in January 2025, according to the Financial Times, Trump had a very tense phone exchange with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, telling her that “Greenland was his.”
- Faced with Copenhagen and Nuuk’s clear refusal, and with European public opinion firm, Washington subsequently changed tactic, appointing Jeff Landry as special envoy in late 2025 and launching more discreet influence operations mobilizing substantial resources, including intelligence services.
If Donald Trump has not abandoned his objectives — he even renewed provocative posts on Truth Social — he now seems to favor direct pressure on a population of fewer than 60,000 people, in order to bypass the Danish echelon.
Far from bringing Greenland closer to Washington, this pressure has tightened cooperation with Copenhagen.
- A large majority of Greenlanders, 85% according to Bloomberg, reject any linkage to the United States.