Petroleum fund in occupied territory

Aftenposten (Oslo)
13 November 2005
By Gunnar Kagge

Norwegian Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen must determine whether
the state-owned Petroleum Fund can own shares in a company that is
active in occupied Western Sahara.

Tomorrow November 14, Mrs. Halvorsen will receive a letter from the
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara informing her that the
Petroleum Fund owns shares amounting to 95 million kroner in the
American company Pioneer Natural Resources. The undersigned expect the
Finance Minster to speedily instruct the Petroleum Fund to sell the
shares.

Western Sahara is occupied by Morocco. The occupation is brutal with
large parts of the original population driven into exile, while Morocco
entices its own population to settle in the country. The United Nations
has stated that it is a violation of international law to contribute to
exploitation of the natural resources of the occupied country.

Thrown out
In June the Finance Minister at that time, Per-Kristian Foss, decided
that the Petroleum Fund should sell its shares in the oil company
Kerr-McGee. It was the first time a Finance Minister gave such an order.
The oil exploration activities were at that time described as a
“particularly serious violation of fundamental ethical norms”.

The Petroleum Fund held shares and obligations worth 337 million kroner
in Kerr-McGee. All this has now been sold.

Since then Kerr-McGee has renewed its agreement concerning oil
exploration in the ocean outside of Western Sahara. The company has
also enlisted two American partners, the oil companies Pioneer and
Kosmos Energy LCC. The Support Committee has found out that the
Petroleum Fund owns shares in Pioneer.

Now it asks that these shares are sold and that the Finance Minister
gives instructions that both companies are to be excluded from the
investment universe of the Petroleum Fund.

Ethical funds
Such exclusion could be an effective weapon. Groups that are concerned
about “ethical management” tend to keep track of each other. Many fears
to be presented as too lax, so that when a large fund excludes
companies, the other portfolio managers will have to consider doing the
same.

Previously a number of Kerr-McGee partners, including the Norwegian
TGS-NOPEC, have concluded that they are best served by discontinuing the
co-operation.

Ronny Hansen, the leader of the Norwegian Support Committee, says he is
surprised that Kerr McGee is able to find companies that are willing to
co-operate in the occupied territory.

He thinks that the Finance Minister should be able to act speedily,
given the fact that the predecessor already has reached clear
conclusions. The fellow party member of Halvorsen, Minister of Knowledge
Øystein Djupedal, has at several earlier occasions given voice to the
view that the Petroleum Fund should sell out of such shares.

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Translated by the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara

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Source: http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/okonomi/article1155074.ece

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Forwarded by:

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Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara


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