You cannot expect trust when your message changes depending on who is in the audience, writes the mayor of Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq in an open letter to director of Greenland Energy Company, Robert Price.
Mayor Avaaraq Olsen is now meddling in the debate about the oil project in Jameson Land in East Greenland. She believes that it is problematic that the American company Greenland Energy Company apparently tells two different versions of the project.
The oil project has attracted a lot of attention recently, among other things in connection with the directors Robert Price and Olga Solovieva from Greenland Energy Company and and 80 Mile respectively holding a citizens’ meeting in Ittoqqortoormiit.
In addition, the company has also launched a large-scale campaign in collaboration with the American TV personality Dr. Phil, who will host a series of broadcasts about the oil hunt in East Greenland.
The company’s campaign hits hard on the message that there may be billions of dollars worth of oil in Jameson Land, which is why it surprises Mayor Avaaraq Olsen that, according to her, Robert Price was weaving in his answers to the citizens of Ittoqqortoormiit.
Avaaraq Olsen asks which version of history should the population of Greenland believe:
– Robert Price telling the American audience that a historic oil discovery awaits beneath Jameson Land?
– Or Robert Price, who tells Greenlanders that nobody knows if there is oil at all, writes Avaaraq Olsen in an open letter, which is posted on the municipality’s website.
Mayor: The population is not naive
The mayor emphasizes that the people of Ittoqqortoormiit are not naive:
– They understand that investigation involves uncertainty. They understand that geology is complex.
– What they don’t understand is why your self-confidence seems to grow when you speak to a foreign audience, and disappear when you speak to Greenlanders.
Chairman of the local committee in Ittoqqortoormiit, Hans Brønlund, told Sermitsiaq after the citizens’ meeting on 10 June that Robert Price was asked many questions, which he could not answer, and that the local committee chairman felt that the population was being manipulated.
Greenland Energy Company was listed on the Nasdaq exchange earlier this year. The company has a collaboration with the British company 80 Mile, which has the exploration license for Jameson Land. The company has stated that they aim to start drilling in Jameson Land this autumn. In the Ministry of Raw Materials, however, the report continues to say that the company does not have permission to do anything other than put equipment ashore.
