Roundup: Norway's DNB funds sell stakes in companies building Dakota Access pipeline

The funds of Norway's largest bank DNB have sold stakes in companies that are building the Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States, a project that are accused by both indigenous groups and environmental organizations, newspaper Aftenposten reported Thursday.

DNB's information director Even Westerveld confirmed the sales, but the bank will keep its loan commitments in the project until further notice, according to the report.

The move came after questions are risen around the relationship of the 1,825-km-long underground U.S. oil pipeline to the indigenous people on one of the areas where the pipeline will be built.

The pipeline, estimated to be finished in January next year, would cross the Missouri River, which is the main drinking water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Indians.

According to Aftenposten, DNB funds' stakes had a value of around 3 million U.S. dollars.

The fund DNB Global Indeks invested around 1.7 million dollars in the company Phillips 66. The same fund has also some minor holdings in other companies involved in the pipeline project.

In addition to this, the interest fund DNB Global Credit has placed around 1 million dollars in Sunoco Logistics Partners, which makes 0.04 percent of he interest fund's investments.

Arild Hermstad, head of Norwegian non-profit organization "The future in our hands," is pleased with the DNB's sell-off.

"This is a gratifying first step on the way out of Dakota Access. However, the extract is a very small part of the DNB's involvement. We expect that DNB completely withdraws from the project," Hermstad told Aftenposten.

DNB's involvement in the pipeline consists of the three different loans given to the project. The total value of the investment is 2.8 billion kroner (330 million dollars), which is almost 10 percent of the project's budget of around 3.7 billion dollars.

The loans are several times bigger than the value of the sold stakes.

"The goal of all investors should now be to shelve the project, both for indigenous people, environment and climate sake," Hermstad said.

The bank said it has taken the initiative to independently evaluate how the rights of the indigenous people are safeguarded in this process.

"We have also intensified the dialogue with the customers to use our position as a bank to influence a solution to the conflict," Westerveld said.

"We have always been clear that we will only finance projects that meet the DNB's requirements for environmental and social conditions. In case these initiatives do not give satisfactory answers and results, we consider selling our part of the financing of the project," he said.

"It is very easy to sell small shareholdings in listed companies. It is much more demanding and takes longer time to sell a loan that is given to such a project, because we first need to find a buyer," Westerveld said. Endit