Greenland’s Oil, Gas and Critical Minerals:

Greenland’s Oil, Gas and Critical Minerals: Strategic Opportunity, Arctic Constraints and Great-Power Competition

Question

Why has Greenland become increasingly important for oil, gas and critical-mineral exploration, what legal and practical constraints affect such development, what are the geopolitical implications, and what should be the way forward?

Answer

1. Greenland’s strategic resource potential: • Greenland has substantial geological potential in critical minerals, rare earth elements and hydrocarbons. • The U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean undiscovered technically recoverable conventional resources of about 7.8 billion barrels of oil and 91.9 trillion cubic feet of gas in the West Greenland–East Canada province. • However, these are geological estimates, not proven commercially recoverable reserves. USGS Publications