Cairn Energy has confirmed that it has found gas off the western coast of Greenland. The Edinburgh-based oil and gas exploration company made the discovery in the Baffin Bay Basin, 175km from the island of Disko. Read the full story

Greenpeace has announced that it has been blocked by a Danish warship in its efforts to sail a protest boat to an oil drilling platform off the coast of Greenland. The environmental group’s ship, Esperanza, was apparently halted outside a 500-metre exclusion zone around the Cairn Energy rig, 200km from Aasiaat, on Greenland’s west coast. In an email statement issued on Monday, Greenpeace said Denmark, which holds sovereignty over Greenland, had sent a ship to confront their vessel. Read the full story

The Cairn Energy oil exploration group has confirmed that it has sold a 51 percent stake in its Indian arm to help fund its project off the coast of Greenland. Just as offshore drilling becomes more controversial in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the Edinburgh-based group will return a “substantial sum” to investors and add to its two rigs already positioned 200km from Aasiaat, on Greenland’s west coast. Read the full story

Farmers in southern Greenland have spoken about the benefits of global warming, as the biggest block of ice since the sixties breaks off the country’s northwest coast. According to researchers at a US university, an ice sheet measuring 260-sq kilometres – the largest since 1962 – detached itself from the Petermann Glacier in Greenland this week. Read the full story

Scientists say ice core samples from Greenland could help predict the impact of global warming, as they reach the country’s bedrock after five years of drilling. A 14-nation consortium announced this week that they are finally able to study ice from the Eemian period (115,000 – 130,000 years ago) to view samples from the last time the earth’s temperature was warmer than today. Read the full story

Iceland’s biggest domestic carrier, Air Iceland, is set to increase its Greenland service by offering flights to three Greenlandic towns all year round, RUV reports. Read the full story

A huge chunk of ice measuring seven-square kilometres has broken off a glacier in Greenland, prompting fears that the block will drift into Canadian waters and disrupt shipping. The Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier moved a mile inland in just one day, with all the action caught on monitored satellites by NASA-funded researchers. Read the full story

Environmental groups have branded Greenland’s government “completely irresponsible” for giving the go-ahead for the drilling of two new oil wells west of Disko-Nuussuaq. Greenpeace has called the decision to hand out the licenses “indefensible” at a time when Norway, Canada and the US are freezing new permits. All three countries have declared moratoria on deepwater drilling after the colossal and ongoing environmental disaster caused by the explosion on a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Read the full story

Greenland’s prime minister has hinted that incarcerated sex offenders could be given hormone-changing drugs to help suppress the urge to commit crime. According to Siku News, Kuupik Kleist said that the construction of a new detention centre for sex offenders is a high priority for the government, despite complaints about a similar institution in Denmark. Read the full story

Cairn Energy is to begin drilling in Baffin Bay after being given the green light for tests from Greenland’s government. According to KNR, company ships, the Nordic and Vidar Viking, have already arrived on the scene and drilling is scheduled to start shortly. Read the full story