Deals
Norway Wealth Fund Gets Nod to Sell $6 Billion in Oil Stocks
- Decision shields the biggest oil companies from divestment
- Norway is seeking to reduce its overall exposure to oil
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Norway’s massive wealth fund got the go-ahead to sell oil and gas stocks worth $5.9 billion, ending a two-year process that has reduced an initial proposal to dump all its petroleum investments to a more moderate divestment.
The $1 trillion fund shocked markets in 2017 when it asked the government for permission to sell about $40 billion in such stocks, arguing a cut in exposure would reduce the overall risk for Norway, western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer. That plan was then heavily diluted in a political compromise that shielded the world’s biggest oil companies.