Tensions rise again after Greenland warns Texas oil company

Tensions around the sovereignty of Greenland have been stoked again after the territory's government rebuked a United States company.

The criticism came after the oil company, with alleged ties to US President Donald Trump, unloaded exploratory drilling equipment without the necessary approval.

The incident followed Trump's claims earlier this year that the US would assume control of the semiautonomous mineral-rich Danish territory that is home to 57,000 people.

The US president's designs on the 2-million-square-kilometer Arctic island drew condemnation from NATO countries that said both Denmark and the US are members of the military alliance and that a dispute between them would threaten its existence.

After a period of relative calm, the latest chapter began late last month when Texas-based Greenland Energy moved machinery onto the island's remote East Coast, causing Greenland's government to issue a "strong warning" through its Mineral Resources Authority in which it said: "All future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the Mineral Resources Authority — before they are carried out."

Greenland Energy, which hopes to extract billions of barrels of oil from Greenland's Arctic basin, is led by Chairman Larry Swets, who The Guardian newspaper said "appears to enjoy access to Trump's circle".

France 24 has reported that the company's board of directors features Carol Craig, a US Navy veteran involved in Trump's Golden Dome missile-defense plan for Greenland.

While Swets has insisted the company's activities are in no way "related to American annexation" of Greenland, some observers fear a standoff between it and Greenland's government could lead to an intervention from the US government.

Lukas Wahden, an associate fellow of the Russia program at George Washington University, told France 24: "The exploration for oil by Greenland Energy is relatively unproblematic. The issue that caused political controversy … is that the US company Greenland Energy didn't coordinate with the relevant Greenlandic authorities in its disembarking of equipment for the exploration that is planned in East Greenland."

Wahden said the company clearly "stepped on a number of toes".

Greenland's Foreign Minister Mute Egede, who is responsible for natural resources, told the territory's broadcaster KNR: "Given the current situation, I do not consider it realistic that the company can drill in the autumn."

Greenland Energy has said $1 trillion of crude oil could be under Greenland's Nunap Qeqqa area, also known as Jameson Land, and that it plans to spend $60 million on drilling two exploratory wells.

The incident, which is taking on the appearance of a standoff, has the potential to destroy the uneasy calm.

And with Trump saying just last month in an interview with Steve Gruber from the right-wing Real America's Voice News that Greenland will come under US control before the end of his term, it seems possible a standoff could force an escalation of the dispute.