Pack Ice

Those reserves would represent a greater challenge because the water freezes into pack ice that can be 3 meters (10 feet) thick and thaws enough to allow ships through for one month a year at most.

Though global warming may make that oil accessible at some point, the technology actually doesn't exist yet to explore through the ice.
Today, the island has limited autonomy. Greenland residents, mostly Inuit natives, in November will vote on a referendum on greater self-governance, a step that the island is taking as part of 2004 agreement with Denmark. Under the proposal, control of foreign policy would shift to the island.

All this is theoretical at the moment, because no one knows for sure how much oil there is. Nielsen said there's ``a risk'' that the comparisons with the North Sea will prove over-optimistic. And politicians expecting oil to ``bubble up from under the water in two to three years'' are ``very unrealistic,'' said NunaOil's Olsen.