President Donald Trump said Wednesday that “massive” exploration for oil, gas and minerals was preparing to begin in Greenland, describing the Arctic territory’s resource potential and strategic position as important to the United States and Europe. He gave no timetable and did not identify a new government-approved exploration program.
The announcement followed a September security agreement signed by the United States, Denmark and Greenland. It does not grant the United States special rights to explore or extract resources. It does restrict some investments by states outside NATO, NATO partners and the European Union in sensitive sectors, subject to Greenlandic and Danish oversight.
The clearest active drilling project is in the Jameson Land Basin in eastern Greenland.
The project remains at the first stage of Greenland’s stated 11-step approval process, which includes environmental and social assessments and public consultation. Authorities also warned in July after equipment was moved toward the project area before the necessary approval had been issued, ordering that it remain stored until permits are granted.
Greenland has attracted oil exploration since the 1970s, including work involving ExxonMobil, Shell and Eni, but no major discovery resulted. Company filings describe the Jameson basin as an undrilled frontier area with prospective resources rather than established reserves, and emphasize that estimates for undiscovered hydrocarbons carry substantial geological, technical and economic uncertainty. Harsh conditions, limited infrastructure and the absence of local processing capacity have also complicated earlier attempts to develop oil, gas and mineral projects.
Trump’s statement therefore places a broad political announcement alongside a much narrower, still-permitted exploration effort. Any drilling in Jameson Land remains dependent on Greenlandic regulatory approval, while the September security agreement leaves resource ownership and decisions about Greenland’s future within the existing Danish and Greenlandic constitutional framework.