Norway’s Oil Disposal Drama Descends Into Farce

I’ll confess, despite the best efforts of Netflix, my exposure to Norwegian comedy is very limited. That said, the finale to the one show I’ve vaguely followed – “What to Do With All Our Oil Stocks?” – has a pleasing subtlety to it; a knowing wink; the faintest tug of a leg-pull.

Roughly 16 months ago, Norway’s central bank advised ditching oil and gas stocks from the country’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, to mitigate the risk from “a permanent drop in oil and gas prices.” However, a plot-twist arrived last August, when a government commission recommended against such divestment. It reasoned selling wouldn’t reduce risk much; in fact, narrowing the fund’s diversification and shifting its composition so markedly away from the broader market’s could increase risk.