Norway’s oil fund wants out of oil and gas investments

By Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer - November 17, 2017
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A Norwegian national flag flies from a vessel near the Scarabeo 8 deepwater oil drilling rig in Olensvag, Norway. (Kristian Helgesen / Bloomberg)
A Norwegian national flag flies from a vessel near the Scarabeo 8 deepwater oil drilling rig in Olensvag, Norway. (Kristian Helgesen / Bloomberg)

Earlier this autumn, Norway’s oil fund reached the stunning value of $1 trillion. Built on transfer of oil revenue from May 1996, the fund is today the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund is supposed to secure pensions for generations to come.

The fund has invested in some 9,000 companies in 77 countries around the world. In value, the fund owns 1 percent of all listed companies worldwide.

Now, Norges Bank, who manage the investments, is shocking the petroleum market by recommending the removal of oil stocks from the fund’s benchmark index.

In a letter to the Ministry of Finance on Thursday, the bank writes, “In the Bank’s view, this will make the government’s wealth less vulnerable to a permanent drop in oil and gas prices.”

The letter informs that the vulnerability of government wealth to a permanent drop in oil and gas prices will be reduced if the fund is not invested in oil and gas stocks, and advise removing these stocks from the fund’s benchmark index.

Norges Bank underlines in a press release that this advice is based exclusively on financial arguments and does not reflect any view on the sustainability of the oil and gas sector.

The move, however, makes environmentalists happy.

Greenpeace calls the move wise and a victory for common sense.

“This is a very wise proposal from Norges Bank. Norway is already heavily invested in oil and gas resources, so selling off the oil fund’s fossil stocks will clearly help reduce our financial carbon risk,” says Truls Gulowsen, head of Greenpeace Norway.

“We have made this argument for some time, and there is no reason why the Norwegian Ministry of Finance should not approve this request.”

Norges Bank writes in the letter to the Ministry of Finance that “the analyses show that oil and gas stocks are significantly more exposed than other sectors to movements in oil prices.”

Oil and gas equities currently account for around 6 percent of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (often named the oil fund) benchmark index. That is just over 300 billion Norwegian kroner (€30,81 billion).

Among those investments is Gazprom Neft, which operates the Prirazlomnoye field in the eastern Barents Sea, Russia’s only operating offshore oil field in the European part of the Arctic. As of January 1, 2017, the fund held stocks in Gazprom Neft valued at 594 million kroner (€61 million).