3/10/2019

NORWAY : ''BIGGEST SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND''


NORWAY will announce on Friday whether its sovereign wealth fund, which is the world's biggest,  and has been fueled by petrodollar, will divest its oil and gas holdings in a decision keenly awaited by climate activists.

While the decision is said to be based solely on financial considerations and not on the environment or climate change, a divestment by an investor worth more than $1 trillion would be major blow to polluting fossil fuels.

Finance Minister Siv Jensen is expected to present the government position at a press conference.

Norway's central bank tasked, with managing the mammoth fund - commonly referred to as the ''oil fund'' but formally known as as the Government Pension Fund - made headlines in November 2017 when-

When it called for the divestment of oil stocks in order to reduce the Norwegian state's exposure to the volatile oil sector.

''This advice is based exclusively on financial arguments and analyzes of the government's total  oil and gas exposure,'' the bank's deputy governor Egil Matsen said at the time.

It ''does not reflect any particular view of future movements in oil and gas prices or the profitability or sustainability of the oil and gas sector,'' he added.

In Norway, the biggest hydrocarbon producer in western Europe, oil and gas represent almost half of exports and 20 percent of the state's revenues. [Agencies]

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Grace A Comment!