 | |
| Company type | State owned |
|---|---|
| Industry | Infrastructure |
| Founded | 1916 |
| Headquarters | Ny-Ålesund, Norway |
Area served | Svalbard |
Key people | Ole Charles Ryder Øiseth (CEO) |
| Revenue |  36.8 million kr (2005) |
| 0.2 million kr (2005) | |
Number of employees | 32 (2007) |
| Parent | Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry |
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Credit: Sigvald Moa
Kings Bay AS is a government enterprise owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry that operates the entire settlement of Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard. The settlement, the most northerly civilian settlement in the world, serves research staff. The company provides the necessary infrastructure, such as transport (including the airport Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben), real estate, power and water supply, catering and other facilities. The company is also responsible for administering Bjørnøen AS, a government enterprise that owns the entire island of Bjørnøya. In the summer the company also handles cruise ships that arrive at Ny-Ålesund.[1][2]
The company was founded in 1916 as Kings Bay Kull Company with the intention of operating a coal mine. It was later nationalized, and in 1962 the mine closed in the context of a political crisis in Norway known as the Kings Bay Affair (Kings Bay-saken). A research facility was subsequently set up in at Ny-Ålesund, to be run by the company.[3] From 1964 to 1974, through an agreement with the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), the island housed a Norwegian satellite telemetry station. Kings Bay resumed primary responsibility for facilities operations in 1974. In the 1990s, research activities expanded in Ny-Ålesund. In 1998 Kings Bay Kull Compani AS changed its name to Kings Bay AS, removing the final reference to coal.[4]
