The Next Oil Sheikdom?

While making my merry way through the news stories this evening, I came across a rather entertaining item about a land few people associate with oil, or for much of anything other than perhaps a failed Norweigian colony that died out in the 1400's, or some Inuit perhaps, or maybe lots and lots of snow. This land is ironically enough called Greenland, and if some oil companies have their way, this sparsely populated arctic desert of some 58,000 mostly Eskimo inhabitants will be rolling in plenty of green.

Somewhere under the rapidly thinning icecap of Greenland lies a lot of oil--by some estimates, half of the supply in Saudi Arabia (which is quite impressive by any standards). Until recently, this oil has been impossible to get at, because even though 110 billion gallons of oil is a huge amount, digging through a mile of ice is less than appealing, even with the drillbits at the disposal of the oil companies. Of course, now that Greenland's ice is melting like a snowcone on a hot summer day, it is rather ironic that this brings even more oil (and in a relatively peaceful part of the world) close to the surface, where it can be explored and exploited.

The residents of Greenland hope that the possible wealth brought to them by oil concessions allows them to become independent from Denmark. After all, the Danes have ruled this forsaken glacial wilderness since establishing some colonies on the coastal fringes of the rather icy land, which currently makes most of its income on fishing and depends on subsidies from Coopenhagen to survive. If the oil of Greenland can be tapped, though, Greenland seeks to become the next Kuwait.

Of course, not everyone is thrilled about the prospect of intense oil business in what has hitherto been a very remote portion of the earth. Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund have expressed concern over possible harm to the whale and seabird population that currently dwells in a land with relatively little direct human impact. Of course, since Greenlanders are seeing plenty of cash opportunities with their oil reserves, it is likely that if the oil can be found, those seabirds and whales are probably just going to have to go elsewhere.

That is, unless oil is found on Baffin Island.