Kings Bay AS is a government enterprise owned by the

Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry ( Norwegian: Nærings- og handelsdepartementet) was a Norwegian ministry responsible for business, trade and industry. On 1 January 2014 it was merged into Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheri ...

that operates the entire settlement of

Ny-Ålesund Ny-Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is a small town in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula (Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned ...

on Svalbard. The settlement, the most northerly civilian settlement in the world, serves

research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

staff. The company provides the necessary infrastructure, such as

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

(including the airport

Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben ( no, Ny-Ålesund flyplass, Hamnerabben; ) is an airport serving the research community of Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway. The airport is owned by Kings Bay, who also owns the company town. The only flights av ...

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

, power and water supply,

catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major services be ...

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 ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

s that arrive at Ny-Ålesund. The company was founded in 1916 as Kings Bay Kull Company with the intention of operating a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

. It was later

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...

, 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. From 1964 to 1974, through an agreement with the

European Space Research Organisation The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a ...

(ESRO), the island housed a Norwegian

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

telemetry Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', "remote", an ...

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.

References

Electric power companies of Norway Airport operators Government-owned companies of Norway Companies based in Svalbard Non-renewable resource companies established in 1916 Coal companies of Norway Mining in Svalbard Ny-Ålesund Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1962 Research institutes established in 1964 Public utilities established in 1964 Norwegian companies established in 1916 {{Svalbard-stub