Af Kurt Kristensen | 24-11 - 18:19
Today marks the self-rule referendum, where the distribution of future expected natural resources has played a paramount role. Scotland's Cairn Energy PLC has signed an agreement with Danish-Greenlandic Nunaoil and Raw Materials Minister Kim Kielsen for two new oil licenses in the sea off South Greenland.
Cairn's two licenses, which have been given the names 'Salliit' and 'Uummannarsuaq’, are located around Cape Farewell, and collectively cover a sea area of over 20,000 square kilometres.
Cairn is the biggest player in the hunt for oil in Greenland. It currently has two licenses around Disko Island and the Nuussuaq Peninsula and four licenses in the sea south-west and south of Greenland. It has also bought into the Canadian company EnCanas, which has two licenses off the coast of Nuuk.
With a total of eight licenses Cairn is committing itself to a major investment in oil exploration in the coming years. However, Michael Watts, who manages the company's exploration and new business areas, said that most of Cairns’s oil and natural gas activities are focused on southern Asia.
‘We want to cover our costs in Greenland, with the profits from our oil fields in India,' Watts said.