Norway’s pension fund could cut billions in oil stocks to spread risk
Oslo — Norway’s $1-trillion sovereign wealth fund proposed dumping about $35bn in oil and gas stocks, including Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, to protect the economy of western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer. The nation will be "less vulnerable" to a drop in oil by not being invested in stocks of companies in the industry, the Oslo-based fund said Thursday. The finance ministry said it would study the plan and decide at the earliest in "autumn 2018". The Stoxx Europe 600 oil and gas index reversed gains after the announcement, sliding 0.4% as of 1.14pm in London. "Our perspective here is to spread the risks for the state’s wealth," Egil Matsen, the deputy governor at the central bank in charge of overseeing the fund, said in an interview in Oslo on Thursday. "We can do that better by not adding oil price risk through the fund." The advice constitutes the next major step in scrubbing the world’s biggest wealth fund of climate risk after it largely sold out of coal stocks. Wh...
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