BlackRock is Ready to Invest in U.S. Energy Pipelines
The world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, is prepared to invest in energy pipelines in the United States as soon as such projects get the green light from the government, BlackRock’s chief executive Larry Fink recently said.
At a conference in Washington, the top executive of BlackRock defended the company's investment choices. BlackRock has been criticised by environmentalists for still investing in conventional energy and by Republican-led U.S. states for what they see as a boycott of the U.S. energy industry.
“I'm now being attacked equally by the left and the right, so I'm doing something right, I hope. I don't know. It's painful, but you know what? We're moving forward,” Fink said at the Institute of International Finance conference.
In the pipeline business, BlackRock is invested in energy infrastructure in Texas and the Middle East.
Early this year, a consortium led by affiliates of BlackRock and Hassana acquired a 49% stake in Aramco Gas Pipelines Company, a unit of the world’s biggest oil firm, Saudi Aramco. In 2019, BlackRock put money into the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's (ADNOC) oil pipeline infrastructure.
At the same time, several Republican-run states in the U.S. are pulling state funds out of BlackRock's management because they don't agree with the ESG investment policies of the world's largest asset manager. In recent weeks, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah, and Arkansas have announced they would divest funds from BlackRock totalling more than $1 billion.
Last week, Louisiana State Treasurer John Schroder announced in a letter to BlackRock’s Fink that he would divest all Treasury funds from BlackRock. Louisiana has removed $560 million to date and will pull out a total of $794 million by year’s end, Schroder noted.
For months now, Republican states have said they would no longer do business with asset managers that have ESG-aligned investment policies, which, the states say, show that those financial firms are boycotting the oil and gas industry.
Source: Oilprice.com
