Norway Wealth Fund To Decide On Sale Of Oil & Gas, Coal Stocks On June 12

The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund will decide on its investments in oil & gas explorers and coal miners on June 12.

The Norwegian Parliament may mandate its sovereign wealth fund—called the Government Pension Fund Global—to sell stake in such firms and transfer some of the investment in renewable energy companies. A study commissioned by the Norwegian government pegs global renewable energy infrastructure market to grow by almost 50 percent, from $2.9 trillion in 2017 to $4.2 trillion in 2030, driven by solar and wind power capacity additions. The fund’s move will boost such investments.

The fund, which is also known as the Oil Fund, holds stake in 150 oil and gas companies and coal miners. The list includes four Indian oil and gas companies—Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd., Oil India Ltd. and Reliance Industries Ltd.—according to the Norwegian finance ministry.

The website of Norges Bank Investment Management, the fund’s manager, claims that the fund also has investments in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd., GAIL (India) Ltd., Gujarat Gas Ltd., Indraprastha Gas Ltd., Petronet LNG Ltd. and Gujarat State Petronet Ltd., as on December, 2018.

The fund owns less than 1 percent in eight of these companies.

The decision comes against the backdrop of volatility in crude oil prices in global markets due to trade war. This might affect the Indian companies if the fund decides to divest its stake in one go as the number of shares it owns is over thrice the last 20-day average volume of shares traded in the S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty.