Chinese Company Was Removed From Norwegian Oil Fund

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The state-owned Norwegian Pension Fund (Statens pensjonsfond utland), also known as the Oil Fund (Oljefondet), renounces shares in the Chinese company Weichai Power Co. The fund fears the involvement of this company in sales of military equipment to Russia and Belarus.

"The Oil Fund Ethics Board has recommended the exclusion of Weichai Power Co Ltd (WP) due to the unacceptable risk that the company will facilitate the sale of weapons or military equipment to states where the fund is not permitted to hold bonds. The list of these countries includes Syria, North Korea, Russia and Belarus, the fund representative said.

The Chinese company Weichai produces diesel engines. They are used in heavy vehicles. The Chinese company has joint ventures with Belarusian MAZ and Russian Kamaz.

The fund also gave up shares in L3Harris, a company that produces parts for nuclear weapons. The shares of the Indian company Adani, which deals with port operations in Myanmar, were also sanctioned by the Norwegian fund. According to the found, servicemen have been "committing extreme abuses against the civilian population" for many years in this country.

The State Pension Fund of Norway was established in 1990 to invest excessive revenues of the Norwegian oil sector. In March 2024, its assets exceeded $1.62 trillion. This fund on average owned 1.5% of all companies in the world listed on the stock exchange. It is the world's largest public investment fund.