OSLO - Norway’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, will sell its stakes in oil and gas explorers and producers but still invest in energy firms that have refineries and other downstream activities, according to a government plan.
The state, which has built up its wealth on the back of North Sea oil and gas reserves, also has no plans to sell its direct stake in Norway’s Equinor. Firms to be excluded from the fund would include Cairn Energy, in which the fund had a 1.92 percent stake worth $22 million at the end of 2018, Tullow Oil, in which it held 2.1 percent worth $67 million, and Premier Oil, in which it held 1.8 percent worth $12 million.
Stocks in energy companies, already dropping due to declining crude prices, extended their losses on the news.