Norway’s wealth fund plans to ditch all oil and gas stocks

Baku. 17 November. REPORT.AZ/ Norway’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund is proposing to sell off all its holdings in oil and gas companies.

Report informs citing the Haberturk, in a letter sent to the Ministry of Finance today, the Norwegian Central Bank, which runs the sovereign wealth fund, said the move would make it “less vulnerable to a permanent drop in oil and gas prices.”

Around six percent of the fund’s holdings, or $ 37 billion, consist of oil- and gas stocks such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil. The fund’s exposure to fossil fuel markets is currently double that of a standard global fund, the Central Bank said.

Notably, Norway’s wealth fund owns 2,3% of Shell, 1,7% of BP, 1,6% of Total, 0.9% of Chevron and 0.8% of ExxonMobil. The share of investment in the oil and gas sector in the aggregate portfolio is 6.4% and it ranks 7th. The first place belongs to the financial sector with a share of 23.3%.