Greenland is the largest island in the world and is located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Most of it is covered in ice and traditionally the shrimp fishing industry has been the leading source of income

Later on, geological explorations uncovered many interesting minerals, including gold. In the future, the “black gold” in the form of oil and gas may prove to be even more lucrative. Greenland may have an interesting future in the hydrocarbon exploration and production industry, and the state oil company NUNAIOL was established in 1985 to develop this industry – the turnover was a mere DKK 12 million in 2006. Greenland has home rule as a separate state under Denmark.
That the future for Greenland is quite interesting when it comes to offshore exploration is rather safe to assume, and the ice conditions in terms of pack ice and icebergs in addition to darkness, logistics and HSE issues in the area may be a challenge in this respect.

DNV in Greenland
Today DNV’s presence in Greenland consists of one person who works in the areas of shipping, mining certification and offshore-related services: Morten Dalby Jacobsen, who is a Danish national. “Fishing is by far the largest industry here, and some 99 per cent of the Greenland fishing fleet is to DNV class. I have also been busy certifying mining projects and travelling extensively on the island. This is really a one-man show,” says Mr Jacobsen.

DNV’s roots in Greenland
When looking at past history, being a Dane in Greenland who now works for DNV is a trend. In addition to Nuuk-based Mr Jacobsen, DNV’s CEO Henrik O. Madsen lived in Greenland as a child and worked there as a student. So did Kim Mørk, DNV’s Technical Director for the Business Area Energy. Both have parents that lived and worked in Greenland while the two were children and teenagers. Then, while attending university, both returned occasionally times to work during the summer in Greenland. They were both hired by companies working on land conducting surveys and geotechnical testing for infrastructure developments, such as mining, town developments, ports, airports, power plants and so on.

“Ivigtut is a small town where I started school in 1959. This is on Greenland’s west coast. The mineral cryolite – Na3AlF6 – was found and mined there. It was an important catalyst in aluminium production. This small ‘town’ had some 250 permanent residents. The last ship would leave in October and the first would return in April, leaving the community completely isolated for a period of six months each year,” says Mr Madsen.

“We lived in Greenland from 1968 to 1972,” says Kim Mørk. “I went to school in Godthaab (now Nuuk) and, as there was no television at the time, my skiing skills improved quite a lot. I returned while a student to work on geological surveys during the summers of 1984 and 1985 and I’ll never forget the trips in the mountains, the undisturbed nature and the crisp, clean air.”
Mr Mørk adds that the oil and gas fields off the western coasts of Greenland are areas where the industry and DNV will have high focus in the years to come.

In order to prepare for the future DNV have recently initiated two Joint Industry Projects (JIPs) with the objective to develop recommended practice for ice-load on offshore structures and design, installation and operation of arctic offshore pipelines.