Merger Creates Greenland Energy, Which Plans to Explore Greenland’s Jameson Land Basin for Oil & Gas

      A new merger between Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Greenland Exploration Limited, and March GL Company creates a new company, Greenland Energy Company, which plans to explore the Jameson Land Basin in East Greenland for oil & gas. From 1985 to 1990, ARCO, with partner ENI, spent $275 million on mapping, gravity surveys, magnetic surveys, outcrop and sedimentology studies, and seismic surveys to evaluate the Jameson Land Basin, but never drilled. According to ARCO’s analysis, there is multi-billion-barrel oil potential in the basin, but an oil & gas downturn at the time led to them abandoning the project. 

     According to World Oil:

“March GL has reprocessed ARCO’s 1,800 kilometers of 2D seismic data using modern techniques, identifying more than 50 potential oil and gas targets. Many of these structures demonstrate strong trapping potential, setting the stage for the basin’s first exploratory well. With existing infrastructure and renewed investment, Greenland Energy aims to accelerate drilling and responsibly evaluate the basin’s resource base.”

“Field operations are already advancing. The Greenland Government has approved the mobilization of heavy equipment—including bulldozers, trucks, excavators, and generators—to construct a three-mile road to the first drill site. March GL has secured agreements with Halliburton for drilling services and logistics planning, while a leading shipping company will mobilize a 3,500-meter-capable rig. IPT Well Solutions has also been engaged to oversee project management and technical execution.”

Geology of the Jameson Land Basin

     In December 2018, geologists from Greenland Gas & Oil and JMJ Petroleum published ‘Hydrocarbon potential of the Jameson Land Basin’, which is available from GeoExPro.

     The Jameson Land Basin occurs on the East side of the North Atlantic Rift System, and before rifting, it was connected to similar fields on the west side of the rift system in the North Sea and Barents Sea. These are proven hydrocarbon regions. The Jameson Land Basin is one of the last remaining undrilled North Atlantic basins and is thought to be one of the largest unexplored basins in the world. The basin contains up to 17km of Upper Precambrian to Upper Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. 

     According to the paper:

“The lowermost part of the basin’s sedimentary section is characterised by at least 900m of continental coarse-grained clastic deposits of Devonian, Carboniferous and Lower Permian age. These sediments are unconformably overlain by 900-1800m of shallow marine and continental Upper Permian to Triassic rocks that contain considerable amounts of carbonates, evaporites and red-beds, representing a period of rifting and graben development during the initial stages of separation of Greenland from northern Europe. This event was followed by marine, mainly clastic sedimentation, which continued throughout the Jurassic and into Cretaceous times. The culmination of this was during the Early Tertiary when the entire area was subjected to widespread magmatic activity, associated with rifting and oceanic spreading related to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, which was accompanied by block faulting, major uplift and erosion of the basin.”

     A palinspastic restoration of the pre-rift rocks is shown below. The connection to existing hydrocarbon productive fields in the Barents and North Sea is established with rocks of similar age, composition, and similar hydrocarbon source rocks, expulsion, migration, charging, trapping, sealing, and preservation indicated.

     The main reservoirs are thought to be Permian through Triassic and Jurassic in age, but deeper Carboniferous (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian) aged rocks are also thought to be prospective. A seismic-based structural model is shown below.

     The authors write:

“We consider the Jameson Land Basin to have significant potential for both oil and gas. A number of sizeable prospects and leads have been identified and mapped, suggesting the potential for multi-billion barrel prospective resource volumes within the current licensed areas, occurring at viable drilling depths. Initial prospect mapping and volumetric calculations identified gross un-risked P50 recoverable resources in the region of 3.5 Bboe with an estimated average Chance of Success of 1:10.”

     The abstract of a 2025 paper in Geological Magazine notes that the basin contains 1.5 km of Middle-Late Triassic sediments that are thought to be prospective. These are syn-rift (deposition and rifting contemporaneous) deposits.

     In April 2025, a deal was reached to drill two 3,500 m exploration holes designed to delineate the sedimentary structure and energy potential of the basin. Halliburton has been contracted for project management and logistics support.

 

     

References:

 

$215 million merger forms Greenland Energy to unlock Arctic drilling potential. World Oil. September 11, 2025. $215 million merger forms Greenland Energy to unlock Arctic drilling potential

Jameson Land Basin. 80 Mile PLC. April 28, 2025. Jameson Land Basin | 80 Mile plc

Hydrocarbon Potential of The Jameson Land Basin. Dr John M Jacques, Greenland Gas & Oil and JMJ Petroleum; Dr Mark Bilsland, Greenland Gas & Oil; and Ruth Hoult, JMJ Petroleum. December 14, 2018. GEOExPro. Hydrocarbon Potential of The Jameson Land Basin - GeoExpro

Jameson Land Basin. March GL. March GL | Jameson Land Basin | Greenland

Middle–Late Triassic evolution of the Jameson Land Basin, East Greenland. Steven D. Andrews, Andrew Morton and Audrey Decou. Geological Magazine. Volume 158. Issue 5. Cambridge University Press. September 29, 2025. Middle–Late Triassic evolution of the Jameson Land Basin, East Greenland | Geological Magazine | Cambridge Core

The Jameson Land Basin. Geology of East Greenland. Geology of East Greenland - Jameson Land basin