Norway fund excludes Kosmos and Cairn

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) – previously known as the Norwegian Petroleum Fund – decided on 28 June to exclude Cairn Energy and Kosmos Energy from its portfolio because of the two companies’ decision to explore for oil and gas in areas offshore Western Sahara under licences issued by the government of Morocco. According to a statement by Norges Bank, which runs the fund, its executive board’s decision was made following an “assessment of the risk of particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms”.