Robert Price was sitting on a $1 trillion frozen goldmine. Then Dr. Phil got involved

Robert Price hadn’t noticed the 10-foot-tall wartime photo of his dad behind him.

“That’s him, yeah. He was stationed…”

The Texas wildcatter stopped, his eyes welling up with tears. He gave a cautious laugh and looked back up at the photo.

“Um,” Price started again, his voice wavering. “He was stationed in Greenland for three years at a weather station.”

Price was sitting in the middle of a decked-out studio, recording a podcast hosted by Phil McGraw, aka Dr. Phil, the frequent “Oprah Winfrey Show” guest turned TV host turned vocal surrogate for President Donald Trump.

The veteran oilman had gained exclusive drilling rights in Jameson Land, a remote part of Greenland right at the Arctic Circle – and what he believes is the world’s last frontier oil project.

As many as 13 billion barrels of crude, worth more than $1 trillion at today’s prices, were frozen deep within the very same stretch of frozen land that Price’s weatherman father was deployed to monitor during World War II. It was oil that the world desperately needed, with war raging in the Middle East and global crude stockpiles plunging by 2 billion barrels to reach critical lows over the past seven months.

Price wanted to tell the world all about it, and Dr. Phil was going to help him do it. “My dad would be really proud,” he said on the podcast.

The emotional interview may have undone Price’s dream.

Greenlanders, already on edge about Trump’s ambition to control Greenland, were furious. Local regulators withdrew their backing for the project. Price cut ties with Dr. Phil and is trying to make peace. In an interview with CNN, he said politics aren’t at play here. This is about helping Greenland benefit from its natural riches.

“This is about bringing capital to Greenland. It has nothing to do with the Trump administration,” Price told CNN. “Politics will come and go, but our project will be there for a long period of time.”

Price hopes he can salvage the massive and expensive project by doing some serious damage control. His company, Greenland Energy, said in a recent press release it would take no shortcuts, and it would continue the painstaking regulatory process “one day and one step at a time.” Another misstep could keep all that potential oil locked under the frozen surface forever.

Price has oil in his blood. His grandfather died in an oil rig fire. His father was raised in Cushing, Oklahoma, the pipeline crossroads of the world. And Price spent his decades-long career getting land for oil majors to drill.

But he had never seen an opportunity like this.

Price knows it sounds nutty. His wells are hidden miles under an ice sheet in a remote part of Greenland with no way in or out, all winter long. Price remembers his father telling him stories about dogsleds, skiing, fishing, eating seal, hunting and the like. He still has 50 letters that his father wrote home to Price’s grandmother from his remote station in the arctic.

But he says the gamble is worth it: This isn’t a complicated extraction project like the tar sands of Canada, Brazilian pre-salt oil or even Texas Permian Basin horizontal fracking. It’s old-fashioned, drill-straight-down-until-you-strike-oil stuff, which means if he strikes oil (Price says “when” he strikes oil), he can drill considerably more profitably than those projects.

“Greenland is a beautiful, extraordinary place,” Price told CNN. “And to tell the story, not only of Greenland, but of the Greenlandic people and what our potential discovery might be, is important to me.”

Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2026

Price argues that Greenland’s potential oil riches would become a boon for its inhabitants. But convincing Greenlanders – who endured threats this year by President Donald Trump to annex or buy their land – of the wisdom of allowing an American oil company to profit from their natural resources may be difficult.

So when an opportunity arose more than 10 years ago to get a license to drill there, Price jumped at the chance.

Arco, a company that had surveyed the basin starting in the 1970s, put its Greenland drilling licenses and seismic surveys up for auction. The company had spent three decades and $250 million preparing to exploit the oil in two gigantic wells below Jameson Land, a remote part of Greenland right at the Arctic Circle. Arco built an airstrip nearby. But the economics never made sense for Arco, and in 1990, the company gave up on the project. It never drilled there.

Now, the economics have changed entirely: Oil is around $100 a barrel, and drilling technology has vastly improved over the past several decades. Price sniffed an opportunity.

Except a British company, 80 Mile, beat him to the punch. So Price reached out with an offer: 80 Mile would work with the Greenland government to nail down the drilling rights, and Price would bring in all the financing, drilling equipment and workers. Price would enter a joint venture with 80 Mile and take up to a 70% interest in the wells.

That meant Price got an opportunity to follow in his father’s footsteps and go to Greenland – a dream he says he had long held since hearing those stories of how his father secretively helped deliver critical weather information to the Allied Forces in their fight against the Nazis.

Price set up the financing, getting some big-named backers, including mega hedge fund Citadel and its CEO Ken Griffin. Greenland Energy went public in March through a SPAC.

As recently as this past spring, it seemed all systems go: 80 Mile had completed its permitting paperwork in May 2025. The Greenland government asked the company to drill in the winter to reduce the potential environmental impact and to drill only one of its wells. An Albertan rig was ready to set sail from Montreal to Nuuk.

And then Dr. Phil shared the news about his Greenland Energy documentary.

To tell his story, Price chose Dr. Phil. Throughout the 44-minute episode, McGraw interviewed Price about the project and previewed future episodes of the adventure, which he titled “Frozen Gold: Oil’s Final Frontier.”

The news of any US company exploiting the region’s resources would necessarily be politically charged, after Trump announced in his inaugural address and repeatedly throughout his second term that the United States would control the territory – suggesting at times that the United States could even take the land by force without Greenlanders’ consent.

Trump’s “less-than-sensitive language” wasn’t helpful to Greenland Energy’s specific project, but his comments shone a light on Greenland’s importance to the Western world, to the United States and to NATO, said Greenland Energy Chair Larry Swets. That helped increase investor awareness and, with it, capital, he told CNN.

Still, Greenlanders got riled up over Greenland Energy’s connection to Griffin (a well-heeled Trump supporter), Carol Craig (who runs a company working on Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense project that Trump wants stationed in Greenland), and the splashy adventure documentary from McGraw.

The Greenland government, which had been working closely with 80 Mile for years, slammed the brakes. The government said Greenland Energy had attempted to set sail under an expired permit. The company decided to air-lift equipment instead, which really got Greenland authorities upset – they viewed the gambit as an effort to bypass regulations.

Last month, Greenland Energy announced it would delay its operations until October. A week later, the company said it was suspending all drilling until 2027.

The company also paused its relationship with McGraw. Representatives for McGraw did not respond to a request for comment.

From The Dr. Phil Podcast

Choosing Dr. Phil may have been a mistake. But Price doesn’t see it that way.

“Regardless of what his political affiliations are, he is a compelling storyteller,” Price said.

The whole premise of the documentary was that “there is an amazing story to tell,” added Swets. “Not just about energy and oil, but about the geopolitics and the people that are in the middle of that,” he told CNN. “It’s regrettable that maybe we didn’t take enough time to have Greenlanders come alongside (the documentary), rather than feel like it was pushed on them.”

Drilling in the Arctic Circle is not for the faint-hearted.

Between 40 and 50 workers would need to be helicoptered in for the winter with an on-staff nurse, a blood bank and two chefs – because once temperatures plummet and the ice sheet moves in, there’s no easy way out. Every onsite worker will be required to carry a gun to protect themselves from polar bears.

Those are the risks that wildcatters like Price are willing to take on.

“This is about shoring up a potential supply of oil on into the future,” Price said.

The war in Iran made clear that the world needs alternative energy sources – including renewable energy but also easily drillable oil projects outside the Middle East. The shale revolution has made the United States the world’s largest energy producer, but some oil industry analysts fear Texas’ Permian Basin is close to exhausting its supply of tier 1 oil – the most easily accessible and profitably extracted crude.

No one knows exactly when that might happen; many think the Permian has another few years or even a decade of tier 1 oil left. But oil majors aren’t waiting. ExxonMobil’s massive oil well discovery off the coast of Guyana is already nearing 1 million barrels of production a day. Chevron and the United States are placing massive bets on Venezuela.

Price’s expectation of achieving profitability at around $20 means there’s enormous potential reward in Greenland. Even though Arco confirmed the presence of the massive subterranean wells decades ago, drilling doesn’t always yield anything.

“There’s clearly risk in doing exploration,” acknowledged Swets. “We know the oil is there, but we don’t know if we can get it out… The only way to get new information is to drill a well.”

Greenland has a long history of failed attempts to extract its oil, including from big companies like BP and Shell and many smaller companies who weren’t able to get much of anything out of the ground. In 2021, Greenland stopped offering drilling licenses – only allowing grandfathered licenses, such as Greenland Energy’s, to exploit the resources.

If they’re available.

“After we get the first well drilled, then we can decide how to move forward after that,” Price said.

He’ll have to wait until next year to find out. At least.

罗伯特·普莱斯没有注意到他身后那张10英尺高的他父亲在战争时期的照片。

“没错，就是他。他当时驻扎在那里……”

这位来自德克萨斯州的石油勘探者停了下来，眼眶里噙满了泪水。他小心翼翼地笑了笑，又抬头看向照片。

“嗯，”普莱斯再次开口，声音有些颤抖，“他曾在格陵兰岛的一个气象站驻守了三年。”

普莱斯当时正坐在一个设备齐全的录音棚里，录制由菲尔·麦格劳（又名菲尔博士）主持的播客节目。菲尔·麦格劳曾是“奥普拉·温弗瑞秀”的常客，后来成为电视主持人，并最终成为唐纳德·特朗普总统的代言人。

这位资深石油大亨获得了詹姆森地（位于格陵兰岛北极圈内的一个偏远地区）的独家钻探权——他认为这是世界上最后一个未开发的石油项目。

多达130亿桶原油，按今天的价格计算价值超过1万亿美元，被冰封在普莱斯父亲二战期间曾被派去监测的那片冰封地带深处。当时，世界正急需石油，中东战火纷飞，全球原油库存在过去七个月里骤降20亿桶，跌至危急低点。

普莱斯想把这件事告诉全世界，菲尔博士会帮他实现这个愿望。“我爸爸会非常自豪的，”他在播客节目中说道。

那次情绪激动的采访或许毁掉了普莱斯的梦想。

格陵兰人原本就对特朗普控制格陵兰的野心感到不安，如今更是怒不可遏。当地监管机构撤回了对该项目的支持。普莱斯与菲尔博士断绝了关系，并试图缓和局势。在接受CNN采访时，他表示此事与政治无关，而是关乎帮助格陵兰从其丰富的自然资源中受益。

“这关乎为格陵兰岛引入资金，与特朗普政府无关，”普莱斯告诉CNN。“政治风云变幻，但我们的项目将长期存在。”

普莱斯希望通过采取切实有效的危机公关措施来挽救这个规模庞大、耗资巨大的项目。他的公司格陵兰能源在最近的新闻稿中表示，他们不会走任何捷径，并将“一步一个脚印”地继续推进繁琐的监管流程。任何一次失误都可能让所有这些潜在的石油永远封存在冰封的地表之下。

普莱斯的血液里流淌着石油的基因。他的祖父死于一场石油钻井平台火灾。他的父亲在俄克拉荷马州的库欣长大，那里是世界输油管道的枢纽。而普莱斯毕生致力于为大型石油公司争取钻井用地。

但他从未见过这样的机会。

普莱斯知道这听起来很荒谬。他的水井隐藏在格陵兰岛偏远地区冰盖下数英里处，整个冬天都与世隔绝，无法出入。普莱斯记得父亲曾给他讲过狗拉雪橇、滑雪、钓鱼、吃海豹、狩猎等等的故事。他至今还保存着父亲从北极偏远站寄给祖母的50封信。

但他认为这笔投资值得：这并非像加拿大油砂、巴西盐下油田，甚至德克萨斯州二叠纪盆地水平水力压裂那样复杂的开采项目。这是一种老式的、直钻直到挖到油为止的开采方式，这意味着如果他挖到油（普莱斯说的是“当”他挖到油时），他的开采利润将远高于那些项目。

“格陵兰是一个美丽而非凡的地方，”普莱斯告诉CNN。“对我来说，讲述格陵兰的故事，不仅是格陵兰的故事，还有格陵兰人民的故事，以及我们可能发现的东西，都非常重要。”

Gallo Images/Orbital Horizo​​n/哥白尼哨兵卫星数据 2026

普莱斯认为，格陵兰岛潜在的石油财富将造福当地居民。但要说服格陵兰岛居民——他们今年曾遭受唐纳德·特朗普总统吞并或购买其土地的威胁——相信允许一家美国石油公司从其自然资源中获利是明智之举，或许并非易事。

因此，十多年前，当有机会获得在那里钻探的许可证时，普莱斯毫不犹豫地抓住了这个机会。

自上世纪70年代起便对格陵兰盆地进行勘探的阿科公司，将其在格陵兰的钻井许可证和地震勘探权公开拍卖。该公司曾耗费三十年时间和2.5亿美元，准备在詹姆森地（位于格陵兰北极圈附近偏远地区）下方的两口巨型油井中开采石油。阿科公司还在附近修建了一条简易机场跑道。但该项目的经济效益始终无法为阿科公司带来收益，最终在1990年，该公司放弃了该项目，也从未在那里进行过钻探。

如今，经济形势已彻底改变：油价约为每桶100美元，钻井技术在过去几十年中也取得了长足进步。普利嗅到了机会。

然而，一家名为80 Mile的英国公司抢先一步。于是普莱斯提出一项提议：80 Mile将与格陵兰政府合作，敲定钻井权，而普莱斯则负责所有融资、钻井设备和工人。普莱斯将与80 Mile成立一家合资企业，并持有油井高达70%的股份。

这意味着普莱斯有机会追随父亲的脚步前往格陵兰岛——他说，自从听到父亲秘密帮助盟军在与纳粹作战中传递关键天气信息的故事后，他就一直梦想着去那里。

Price负责安排融资，并获得了包括巨型对冲基金Citadel及其首席执行官Ken Griffin在内的一些知名支持者。Greenland Energy于3月份通过SPAC上市。

就在今年春天，一切似乎都进展顺利：80 Mile公司已于2025年5月完成了所有许可手续。格陵兰政府要求该公司在冬季钻探，以减少潜在的环境影响，并且只钻一口井。一艘来自阿尔伯塔省的钻井平台也已准备就绪，即将从蒙特利尔启航前往努克。

然后菲尔博士分享了他关于格陵兰能源纪录片的消息。

为了讲述他的故事，普莱斯选择了菲尔博士。在44分钟的节目中，麦格劳采访了普莱斯，谈到了这个项目，并预告了接下来几集的冒险故事，普莱斯将这部冒险剧命名为“冰冻黄金：石油的最后疆界”。

任何美国公司开发该地区资源的消息都必然会引发政治争议，因为特朗普在其就职演说和第二个任期内反复宣布，美国将控制该地区——有时甚至暗示美国可以在未经格陵兰人同意的情况下武力夺取这片土地。

格陵兰能源公司董事长拉里·斯韦茨表示，特朗普“不够谨慎的言辞”对格陵兰能源公司的具体项目并无益处，但他的言论凸显了格陵兰对西方世界、美国和北约的重要性。他告诉CNN，这有助于提高投资者的关注度，并带来资金。

尽管如此，格陵兰人还是对格陵兰能源公司与格里芬（一位富有的特朗普支持者）、卡罗尔·克雷格（她经营一家公司，参与特朗普的“金顶”导弹防御项目，特朗普希望将该项目部署在格陵兰）以及麦格劳制作的那部引人注目的冒险纪录片之间的联系感到愤怒。

多年来一直与80 Mile公司密切合作的格陵兰政府突然叫停了该项目。政府称格陵兰能源公司试图在许可证过期的情况下出海。该公司决定改用空运方式运送设备，这激怒了格陵兰当局——他们认为此举意在规避监管。

上个月，格陵兰能源公司宣布将运营推迟至10月。一周后，该公司表示将暂停所有钻探活动至2027年。

该公司还暂停了与麦格劳的合作关系。麦格劳的代表未回应置评请求。

出自菲尔博士播客

选择菲尔博士或许是个错误，但普莱斯并不这么认为。

“无论他的政治立场如何，他都是一个引人入胜的讲故事者，”普莱斯说。

斯韦茨补充说，这部纪录片的整个前提是“这里有一个精彩的故事要讲述”。他告诉CNN：“这不仅仅关乎能源和石油，还关乎地缘政治以及身处其中的人们。遗憾的是，我们或许没有花足够的时间让格陵兰人参与到（这部纪录片的）制作中来，而是让他们感觉是被强加的。”

在北极圈钻探可不是胆小的人能做的。

冬季期间，需要用直升机将40至50名工人运送至此，同时还需要配备一名驻场护士、一个血库和两名厨师——因为一旦气温骤降，冰盖逼近，就很难脱身。每位现场工人都必须携带枪支，以防北极熊袭击。

这就是像普莱斯这样的投机者愿意承担的风险。

“这关乎未来潜在的石油供应，”普莱斯说。

伊朗战争清楚地表明，世界需要替代能源——包括可再生能源，也包括中东以外易于开采的石油项目。页岩气革命使美国成为世界最大的能源生产国，但一些石油行业分析师担心，德克萨斯州的二叠纪盆地一级原油（最易开采且利润最高的原油）的储量即将枯竭。

没人确切知道这种情况何时会发生；许多人认为二叠纪盆地还能再开采几年甚至十年的优质原油。但石油巨头们并没有坐以待毙。埃克森美孚在圭亚那近海发现的大型油井日产量已接近100万桶。雪佛龙和美国则在委内瑞拉投入巨资。

Price预计每股收益达到20美元左右即可实现盈利，这意味着格陵兰岛蕴藏着巨大的潜在回报。尽管Arco公司几十年前就已证实存在大型地下油井，但钻探并非总能有所收获。

“勘探显然存在风险，”斯韦茨承认，“我们知道石油就在那里，但我们不知道能否把它开采出来……获取新信息的唯一方法就是钻井。”

格陵兰岛开采石油的历史由来已久，屡屡失败，包括英国石油公司（BP）和壳牌公司等大型企业，以及许多规模较小的公司，都未能从地下开采出多少石油。2021年，格陵兰岛停止发放钻探许可证，只允许持有既得许可证的公司（例如格陵兰能源公司）继续开采石油资源。

如果有货的话。

“等我们钻完第一口井，就可以决定接下来的计划了，”普莱斯说。

他至少要等到明年才能知道答案。