Warming

In Greenland Given the icy conditions, oil production may cost as much as $46 per barrel, according to Oil and Gas Journal While exploration is complicated by icebergs as tall as 15-story buildings, global warming is helping.

Outside the Disko Bay area off the west coast, there were on average 180 ice-free days a year between 2000 and 2005, up from a 25-year average of 150 days, said Leif Toudal Pedersen, a spokesman at Denmark's Meteorological Institute.
If the ice in west Greenland continues to melt as dramatically as it has been doing in the past few years, then the cost of producing a barrel of oil will be closer to $20 than $50.
There may be even more oil off Greenland's northeast coast, where the U.S. Geological Survey last year reported a possible 31.4 billion barrels. That area is more desolate than the west coast; the largest nearby town is Illoqqortoormiut, population 529.