"The ethical rules for the fund were not really designed to save the world, but to save the fund from national criticism that the nation's money was being placed in ways perceived as unacceptable," says historian Einar Lie at the University of Oslo.
He believes this is still the most important thing for the Oil Fund, for example in the discussion about investments in Israel during the Gaza war.
"Our values are not always shared by others. What the Oil Fund does has a major impact and is noticed internationally, including which companies it excludes for breaching principles the fund believes must be upheld."
Lie is surprised that the Council of Ethics' work was suspended.
"Behind this decision there was clearly a fear that ethical considerations would cost the fund too much in lost profit opportunities, but that could have been achieved in other ways," he says.
Previously, the Council of Ethics' recommendations were submitted to the Ministry of Finance for a final decision. Now it is Norges Bank (Norway's central bank) that removes companies from the fund.
This decision could have been reversed. That would have put the government back in control of this, Lie believes.
Oil and politics
The Norwegian state has always wanted to keep both the oil industry and the Oil Fund apolitical - to separate the commercial from the political. The question is whether this is still possible now that the fund has grown enormously large and has therefore become a significant foreign policy muscle.
"It is true that we have tried to avoid politicising oil, to keep it separate both from foreign policy and climate policy. This now seems to be slipping," says Lie.
"Both exploration and production are discussed in light of climate issues, and it is impossible to think about gas production and sales independently of Europe's needs during a period of ongoing war on the continent."
How do we understand ourselves?
We understand ourselves as a small country and an international benefactor that has become rich because we were lucky and capable.
"We don't really have one coherent self-understanding, but a collection of slightly overlapping understandings, depending on whom you ask and what you look at. In foreign policy, Norway has cultivated a profile as a benefactor, a country with good values that seeks to spread these through work in the UN and mediation in conflicts.
"How broad and deep this understanding is among the population is open to debate. But it clearly has deep roots in mission and humanitarian engagement," Lie believes.
"And then you also have an old understanding that Norway is a small and vulnerable country, where we have had a fear of international financial power, in the form of both multinational companies and supranational organisations.
"This self-image no longer fits a reality in which Norway is very rich and is acquiring companies and property around the world. Yet the old self-understanding persists."
How are we viewed by others?
Seen from the outside, Norway is probably perceived somewhat differently.
The benefactor profile has to some extent taken hold, Lie believes. But he notes that the international press at the same time paints a competing picture of Norway as fabulously rich, as a country that profits from conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, which has created extreme gas and electricity prices.
"That our wealth comes from oil and gas, a main source of climate problems, is part of this more critical picture," he concludes.
