NEWS

Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund cleared a hurdle on its proposed path to exiting oil and gas stocks.

The fund won support from key academics at Norway’s top universities, whose responses are part of a hearing process. But more weight will likely be given to the opinion of an expert group, which will give its view later this year before the government and parliament decides.

The fund shocked markets around the world in November when it asked for permission to divest oil and gas companies to reduce financial risk, arguing Norway as a whole is already heavily exposed to oil as western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer. At the time of the proposal, the fund held about $40 billion of shares in oil giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

In the consultation, academics from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Oslo (UiO) backed the proposal, saying it would help diversify risk for the country.

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com