Delivering Polar Diesel to Antarctica

Reaching Beyond the Arctic – Delivering Polar Diesel to Antarctica

At Arctic Import, we are accustomed to operating in harsh Arctic conditions, but our expertise doesn’t stop there. For yet another year, we’ve had the honor of supplying frost-resistant polar diesel to Troll Station, the Norwegian Polar Institute’s research base in Antarctica.

The Troll research station is located on a nunatak in Queen Maud Land, 1,270 meters above sea level and 235 kilometers from the coast. The average temperature here is minus 25°C, with winter cold driving the thermometer down to a staggering minus 50°C. This demands a specialized diesel blend, frostproof to withstand temperatures as low as minus 53°C.

The fuel is transported to Troll aboard the container ship Silver Mary, a vessel many in Greenland might remember by its former name, Mary Arctica. The diesel is distributed across 39 twenty-foot tank containers, which will remain in Antarctica until next year, while the empty containers from last year’s delivery are shipped back.

As Arctic Import’s CEO, Thomas Hjort, puts it with a smile: “We have no plans to rename the company Antarctic Import—but this is a great example of our ability to deliver something no one else can. We’re quite proud of that. As always, we’re happy to combine our Arctic expertise with strong partnerships to tackle complex challenges.”

The delivery is carried out in close collaboration with Port of Aalborg, Go’on, and Blue Water Shipping, requiring both precision and a robust network of partners.

This project demonstrates that with the right products and expertise, boundaries can be pushed—even when they’re thousands of kilometers away. We’re proud to deliver to Antarctica and to continue proving that Arctic Import isn’t limited by distance or extreme temperatures.