Oil fund takes the plunge in Paris

Norwegian newspapers were full of stories on Wednesday detailing how every Norwegian will soon own a little piece of property on the Champs-Élysées. That’s in addition to some other high-end property on Regent Street in London, all courtesy of the fortunes built up in what’s widely known as Norway’s oil fund. The fund, officially known [...]

Norway’s oil fund now world’s biggest

Norway’s “Government Pension Fund – Global,” commonly referred to in the country as the “oil fund,” has overtaken the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) as the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, according to the Monitor Group, with nearly NOK 3,100 billion (roughly USD 570 billion) in the fund today. The news came just a day [...]

Former oil fund boss comes home

Knut Kjær, the founding and former chief executive of Norway’s mammoth oil fund, is moving home after living and working overseas since leaving Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) in 2007. Now he’ll be chairman of a new asset management firm. Kjær sent out a clear signal that he wanted to come home to Norway when [...]

Norway resists using its oil money

Oil revenues continue to pour into Norway but government officials won’t use them to build all the new schools, roads or railways the country needs. Instead, Finance Minister Sigbjørn Johnsen defends investing the money outside Norway through the country’s so-called Oil Fund, instead of at home. Calls continue to rise for Norway to invest more [...]

Few aware of oil revenue rule

Norway’s so-called “handlingsregelen,” the rule that limits use of oil revenues, may well be the most important monetary regulation in the county. Few Norwegians, it seems, are actually familiar with it. A new survey, conducted by research firm Respons Analyse for newspaper Aftenposten, indicates that fully 73 percent of the Norwegian population were not familiar [...]

Oil fund boss threw an elegant party

We can’t confirm that he danced the night away or even loosened his tie, but details recently emerged of a party hosted by oil fund boss Yngve Slyngstad that cost nearly NOK 2 million. “Entirely appropriate,” an aide told an inquiring reporter. The party was thrown last summer when the oil fund, which invests Norway’s [...]

More harsh truths from WikiLeaks

NEWS ANALYSIS: A new batch of confidential documents made available by website WikiLeaks, and mostly stemming from the US Embassy in Oslo, reveal more harsh US criticism of Norway’s left-center coalition government. US diplomats haven’t been at all happy with various Norwegian foreign policy initiatives in recent years, and have unleashed harsh personal characterizations about [...]

Parting thoughts from Norway’s central bank boss

Svein Gjedrem is stepping down after 12 years as the boss of Norway’s central bank (Norges Bank). Farewell events are underway, and he’s sharing some thoughts on the state of the Norwegian economy — strong by most standards, but not without concerns. Gjedrem’s every word has been watched closely during his term as central bank [...]

Oil fund buys into Regent Street

Lots of Norwegians love to go shopping on Regent Street in London. Now their collectively owned pension fund known as the “oil fund” has done some shopping itself, buying a major stake in the real estate along the famed street. The oil fund reported Thursday that it had bought the rights to a 25 percent [...]

Top marks for Norway’s ‘Oil Fund’

Norway’s enormous pension fund that’s fueled by oil revenues, the so-called “Oil Fund,” tops a list of international funds ranked in terms of openness, responsibility, transparency and a host of other criteria. The US-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, a prestigious think tank in Washington DC, awarded Statens pensjonsfond utland (the official name of the [...]

‘Oil fund’ reaches dizzying new highs

The numbers are so big that they’re hard to fathom: Norway’s fund that sets aside oil revenues for future generations is likely to reach a value of three-thousand billion Norwegian kroner by the end of the year. Every single Norwegian can probably be considered a millionaire within the next 10 years, at least on paper. [...]

More ties to Singapore

Norway has a thriving community of expatriates living in Singapore, and now the community looks set to get bigger after the head of Norway’s so-called Oil Fund formally opened a new office there last week. Oil Fund boss Yngve Slyngstad was joined by Finance Minister Sigbjørn Johnsen when they opened the office in the heart [...]

Old pipes lead to illness and expense

Aging water pipes all over Norway can cause illness in coming years, because of built-up sediment and leaks, while repairs or replacement will likely lead to higher water and sewage fees. Newspaper Aftenposten highlighted the problem this week, the latest example of needed infrastructure renewal in Norway. Health officials worry that the old watermains, especially [...]

Stocks dive over Greek tragedy

UPDATED: Norway’s oil fund has grown but the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) wasn’t spared on Friday from a major stock market dive, as nervous investors sold off shares in another spate of panic over the Greek debt crisis. Even though Norway’s economy remains relatively strong, Norwegian share values tumbled. The OSE share values fell 1.87 [...]

Calls rise to invest oil money at home

Instead of simply stashing away Norway’s oil revenues in an overseas investment fund for future generations, calls are rising for more investment of the money in Norway itself. With trains, roads and other major infrastructure badly in need of major investment, one top politician is challenging his own government to loosen the pursestrings. Per Olaf [...]

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