Greenland Halts New Offshore Drilling Licenses
While the 20 licenses currently in use will be not be affected, the new Greenland government will not be issuing permission to drill offshore.
The new government in Greenland is putting a halt on granting offshore drilling licenses. Jens-Erik Kirkegaard, the country's new minister for natural resources, announced earlier this week that the 20 active licenses for drilling in the Arctic waters are sufficient for the area.
While the government is will not likely offer more soon, the existing licenses should not be affected.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Arctic waters hold 30 percent of the world's untapped natural gas and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil. Only Cairn Energy, a Scotland-based company, has drilled off the Greenland coast recently and no oil was discovered.