US President Donald Trump has repeatedly and clearly voiced his frustration on the international stage at not being allowed to take over Greenland.
Most recently on Thursday, when he called Greenland “the big, poorly run piece of ice” on Truth Social.
In that light, it appeared as a symbolically major victory when the US oil veteran Robert B. Price rang the bell at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York on Tuesday.
Price, who is also CEO of the newly founded US oil company Greenland Energy,
Greenland Energy holds the rights to the Jameson Land area in Greenland, which Robert Price describes as one of the world’s largest undiscovered oil fields.
And it is a company that Danwatch, Finans.dk and the Greenlandic media outlet Sermitsiaq have previously documented as having ambitious plans to exploit the right to explore for oil in Greenland’s coveted, yet sensitive, subsoil.
Now there are millions of dollars from investors, multi-million-dollar contracts with partners, and concrete plans for the oil venture in the Arctic region.
Yet none of the key players are willing to be interviewed.
Instead, Danwatch has analysed the company’s filings with US authorities, read stock exchange announcements and reviewed PR material, as well as listened to various interviews in which Robert Price frequently participates when the topics are oil, business plans and energy security.
Video: Sivert Lendorph / Danwatch
12 September 2026: Heading for Greenland
Our findings show that Greenland Energy plans to send a purpose-built container ship from Canada to Jameson Land in East Greenland as early as 12 September.
And this despite the fact that the Greenlandic Mineral Resources Authority has informed Danwatch that the company has not yet received approval for this.
According to Greenland Energy, the ship will be loaded with advanced oil drilling equipment, chemicals and bulldozers to be used to establish a fossil industry in the Arctic region.
This could have a decisive impact on the energy security of the US and Europe, Robert Price claims in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
The plan has been fuelled by capital from new investors through the stock market listing, and the company’s market value is now $215 million — around DKK 1.5 billion. Robert Price owns 28% of the shares — and he also says he is already in talks with an oil giant and several refineries that are keen to purchase the anticipated oil.
TIMELINE
Greenland Energy’s plan
Here is what we know about the plans for oil exploration in Greenland.
Stock market listing
Greenland Energy raises capital from new investors on the US Nasdaq stock exchange. The company’s vision is oil exploration in Jameson Land in East Greenland.
Equipment
CEO Robert B. Price states that all equipment will be ready for shipment. This includes 300 containers and a drilling rig from the Canadian company Stampede Drilling.
Shipping
A container ship from the Canadian company Desgagnés, which specialises in Arctic transport, has been booked to carry the drilling equipment from the port of Valleyfield in Quebec to East Greenland.
Oil drilling
Drilling rig #12 from Stampede Drilling is to drill two wells several kilometres down into the Greenlandic subsoil. The drilling is expected to take around 60 days.
Source: Danwatch/Photo: Nasdaq+PxHere (Creative Common).
Danwatch would have liked to ask the oil executive why he is the only one among several others to continue the oil venture, after Greenland decided in 2021 to halt all new oil projects entirely for environmental reasons.
Following Greenland’s decision, all companies thus returned their oil licences to the Greenlandic authorities, with the exception of one. And those are the licences Greenland Energy now intends to activate.
Danwatch has also contacted other key people in the company, including chairman Larry G. Swets Jr. and strategic adviser Joe Moglia, former CEO at the Merrill Lynch investment bank.
Flanked by a man wearing a T-shirt with Donald Trump’s slogan “Drill baby, drill” printed across the chest, they both took part in Tuesday’s stock market listing, where Joe Moglia, among other things, said the following:
“In our lifetime, we have never experienced a world in such a profound geopolitical crisis as we are seeing now. And at the heart of that crisis lie both the struggle for and the challenges of energy. In Greenland, we have the opportunity to do something that has never, ever been done before in the world. And it is a huge honour for me to play a small part in that. Congratulations to everyone. This is going to be one hell of a good day!”
However, the company’s senior executives have declined to answer Danwatch’s questions about whether US President Donald Trump’s desire to take over Greenland has had any bearing on the company’s plans.
Profile
Name: Robert B. Price
Age: 64
Nationality: American
Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Greenland Energy (2025 – present)
Background: Robert B. Price is an American business executive with many years of experience in energy, finance and industry.
Previous positions:
- CEO and board member, PureWave Hydrogen Corp (2024 – 2025)
- Founder and CEO, Brooks Energy Company (1992 – 2025)
- CEO and board member, Total Helium (2021 – 2023)
- CEO and board member, Highlands Natural Resources (2014 – 2019)
- Founder and Chairman of the Board, Zeledyne (2007 – 2011)
- Robert B. Price was also Vice President at First National Bank and Trust Company of Tulsa in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s.
Robert Price makes no secret of his ambitions. He believes that if the project succeeds, it could help reduce dependence on Russian energy sources and create a new, more robust foundation for energy supplies in both North America and Europe.
“We can be a solution not only for US energy security, but also for Europe’s energy security,” he says in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance immediately after the stock market listing.
October 2026: Rig #12 drilling for oil
Danwatch’s review shows that Greenland Energy plans to begin the oil drilling in early October.
The Canadian company Stampede Drilling is supplying the drilling rig — the specially engineered mobile oil rig #12 — which towers 30–40 metres above the landscape and can drill 3,500 metres down into the Greenlandic subsoil, where chemicals will be pumped down in the search for oil.
In the fragile Greenlandic wilderness, a temporary industrial camp will be established in the middle of an area populated by Arctic foxes and musk oxen, which play a vital role for the roughly 325 residents of Ittoqqortoormiit, located just 50 kilometres from the planned drilling site.
It is unclear what economic benefits the project will bring to Greenland and the local community. The only thing Robert Price has said is that the project could change Greenland forever.
However, it has not been documented whether there actually is commercially extractable oil in the area. And if the oil can indeed be extracted, the project requires approval from the Greenlandic authorities, including environmental assessments and public consultations.
After all, Greenland Energy currently holds only an exploration licence.
We would have liked to ask Robert Price whether these environmental studies have been initiated, and whether he has looked into the views of the Greenlandic people on the matter.
According to the plan, starting in October and over a period of 60 days, the drilling rig will drill two oil wells to determine whether the area contains oil and to establish whether it can be extracted and exploited commercially.
To reach the drilling site, the plan is for a 50-tonne D9 bulldozer with 500 horsepower on caterpillar tracks to clear the terrain to build a five-kilometre-long access road between the coast and the drilling site.
In addition to the drilling rig, the drilling area will contain hundreds of containers to house personnel and store cement, pumps, generators and other heavy equipment.
Among the personnel are also employees from the American oil services giant Halliburton — a company in which Danish banks and pension funds have invested millions.
Halliburton has been hired to supply equipment and consultancy services for oil exploration in East Greenland. The company has a history of repeated scandals involving war, corruption and environmental disasters, as well as close ties to the US administration.
Halliburton has not responded to Danwatch’s enquiries either.
