--- title: "Trump Announces ‘Massive’ Oil Exploration in ‘Our New and Beautiful Greenland’" description: "Weeks after signing a security deal with Denmark and Greenland, the president is talking about the island’s oil as his" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-10-14T08:08:42Z modified: 2026-10-14T15:21:29Z url: https://rews.cc/a/trump-announces-massive-oil-exploration-in-our-new-and-beaut-1b20fd language: en tags: ["trump", "denmark", "greenland", "oil", "military", "us", "world"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Trump Announces ‘Massive’ Oil Exploration in ‘Our New and Beautiful Greenland’ *Weeks after signing a security deal with Denmark and Greenland, the president is talking about the island’s oil as his* By Nate Ledger · October 14, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/trump-announces-massive-oil-exploration-in-our-new-and-beaut-1b20fd ## In brief - Trump said on Truth Social that “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration is “getting ready to begin” in Greenland, without details - The announcement follows a September US-Greenland-Denmark security deal giving Washington broad military access - The pact expands Pituffik Space Base, allows bases at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig about 950 miles apart, and has no expiry - Trump claimed Greenland’s easily available oil exceeds that of almost any land in the world, citing unnamed experts - Industry experts say Greenland’s resources are lightly explored and extraction has so far been uneconomical On Wednesday, President Trump got on Truth Social and announced, as [CBS News reported](https://cbsnews.com/news/greenland-trump-oil-minerals-gas-exploration/), that “Massive Oil, Gas, and Mineral Exploration is getting ready to begin in our new and beautiful Greenland.” The word worth staring at in that sentence is “our.” Greenland is a self-governing Danish territory, as [Al Jazeera](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/14/trump-says-oil-gas-and-mineral-exploration-to-begin-in-greenland) notes, and no deed has changed hands. What has changed hands is a contract. More than four weeks ago the United States, Greenland and Denmark signed a security agreement to bolster the American military presence on the island. [Newsweek](https://newsweek.com/donald-trump-refers-to-our-greenland-as-he-touts-oil-drilling-12565142) is careful to describe what the deal does and does not do: it gives the US access to Greenland’s airspace and territory, while Greenland goes on being an autonomously run part of the kingdom of Denmark. It followed months of threats by Trump to take over the island, by force if necessary, and a first-term suggestion that America might simply buy the place. The Danes did not sell. The Americans got a lease with excellent terms. Those terms, per CBS’s reporting: the US can expand the existing Pituffik Space Base, its northernmost military installation, which works as an early-warning system for incoming missiles. It can establish additional bases at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, sites roughly 950 miles apart. Any of the three parties can propose further “defense areas,” subject to approval by the others. The agreement has no expiration date, and it bars non-NATO countries from setting up bases on the island without the parties’ consent. And then, tucked into the text, is a mention of resource extraction and “minerals cooperation” between the two countries — with no details specified. ![A golden satellite dish stands on an ice island surrounded by blue water, casting a long shadow shaped like a lattice tower.](https://rews.cc/img/0779b1f209250d56417a85bcd2bd81f0f667c936.webp) That unspecified clause is now doing an enormous amount of rhetorical work. “There are Experts that are saying that the amount of easily available Oil is far greater than that of almost any land, anywhere in the World,” the president wrote — Experts, capital E, names withheld at their own request, one assumes. Trump has also said Greenland holds some of the world’s largest reserves of “easily” extractable oil. The industry experts CBS consulted are more punctilious: they believe Greenland’s mineral resources have only been lightly explored and that, up to now, the cost of extraction has not made economic sense for private companies. Which is the actual mechanism here. A barrel of oil trapped under an Arctic ice sheet is not an asset; it is a very expensive project. The September deal hands Washington access and a vague cooperation clause, but it does not assign drilling rights, and it certainly does not assign the capex. Announcing that exploration is “getting ready to begin” is free. Exploring is not. ![Three gold coins fall toward a slot atop a faceted iceberg with a black oil droplet on its front, against a blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/c2230e834a2595e8993f414fafa829ba185b4254.webp) The president also reprised the security case, at some length: “Any future attack on the United States will have to come across Greenland, where our defense will routinely knock down drones, missiles, or any other form of weapon not yet even conceived. It gives us time, location, and sightline, like nowhere else in the world!” This is, stripped of the adjectives, a description of what the Pituffik base has done for decades: sit on the flight path and watch. The novelty is not the geometry. It is the presentation of minerals as a bonus feature of the missile shield. So consider the arc. The United States spent months musing about buying Greenland, then about seizing it by force if necessary. What it ended up signing is a perpetual access agreement, renewable-style defense areas subject to mutual approval, a NATO lock on competitors, and an undefined line about minerals. Denmark kept the island. Washington got the keys, the airspace and a footnote about oil. The footnote has now been promoted to a headline. Whether the explorers show up in “our new and beautiful Greenland” will depend on the arithmetic the industry experts keep pointing to, which has so far been unpersuasive. But the announcement costs nothing and sounds like a closing. Getting ready to begin, it turns out, is a state that can last as long as you need it to. ## Sources - [Trump says oil, gas and mineral exploration to begin in Greenland](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/14/trump-says-oil-gas-and-mineral-exploration-to-begin-in-greenland) — aljazeera.com - [Trump Refers To ‘Our’ Greenland As He Touts Oil Drilling](https://newsweek.com/donald-trump-refers-to-our-greenland-as-he-touts-oil-drilling-12565142) — newsweek.com - [Trump says "massive" oil, gas and mineral exploration in Greenland is "getting ready to begin"](https://cbsnews.com/news/greenland-trump-oil-minerals-gas-exploration/) — cbsnews.com