Different horses for the oil sands course

Norway pulls funding from Canada’s heavy, sulphurous crude as Saudi Arabia expands its footprint

Recent decisions about investing in major Canadian oil sands companies by the sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) of Norway and Saudi Arabia, two important oil producers in their own right, have been a study in contrast. In mid-May, Norway’s oil fund announced it had formally excluded investment in four Canadian oil companies—Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL), Cenovus Energy, Imperial Oil and Suncor Energy—from its $1tn portfolio, the largest SWF in the world, on environmental grounds. Four days later, it was reported that Saudi Arabia’s $320bn Public Investment Fund (PIF) had built significant stakes in CNRL and Suncor during the recent oil market rout, apparently for more commercial reasons. No