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
Also in this section
19 February 2026
US LNG exporter Cheniere Energy has grown its business rapidly since exporting its first cargo a decade ago. But Chief Commercial Officer Anatol Feygin tells Petroleum Economist that, as in the past, the company’s future expansion plans are anchored by high levels of contracted offtake, supporting predictable returns on investment
19 February 2026
Growth in LNG supply will surpass the rise in demand in 2026 for the first time in years, according to Mike Fulwood, senior research fellow at the OIES, but lower prices are likely to encourage fuel switching and could create more demand on a permanent basis
19 February 2026
Awais Ali Butt, manager for sales and business development at Pakistan LNG Ltd, discusses LNG’s role in energy security across developing, price-sensitive economies, as well as examining trade-offs between buying strategies and the impact of lower prices and policy on import behaviour
19 February 2026
LNG’s technical maturity, availability and price, as well as regulation, have driven its rapid adoption as a marine fuel, yet its future in shipping will depend on transition policies and progress in cutting methane emissions and scaling bio- and synthetic LNG, according to Carlos Guerrero at Bureau Veritas
