Tiny island base is the first victim of South Africa’s looming petrol and diesel shortage

South Africa said it’s evacuating researchers at a sub-Antarctic Marion Island base after the Iran war delayed fuel deliveries needed for the operations. 

The “urgent evacuation of the overwintering team” was ordered after the SA Agulhas II, an icebreaking polar-supply ship, got held up in Cape Town for weeks waiting for the fuel, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, said in a statement late Thursday.

The station requires polar diesel that doesn’t freeze in extreme cold. South Africa blamed the Iran war for the disruption in an earlier statement.

The most industrialized nation on the continent has replaced some of the oil products that it imports from the Middle East with US supplies, but the switch has still resulted in disruptions that reverberate as far as the remote base.

The SA Agulhas II departed on Thursday to pick up the team and is expected to arrive on May 18. Marion Island is one of three South African bases located in remote areas.

“As we are unsure when these fuel products will be available, we cannot wait any longer at the expense of the wellbeing of our team,” Environment Minister Willie Aucamp said in the statement.