* Norway to exclude E&P firms from fund's benchmark index
* Fund investments follow FTSE Russell classification
* FTSE Russell has updated list to include ConocoPhillips
* Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/2tskfub
By Gwladys Fouche
OSLO, June 13 (Reuters) - Norway's wealth fund will nolonger be able to invest in ConocoPhillips and Hessafter a list used to decide which energy firms must beexcluded was updated to include both U.S. oil companies fromlater this month.
As part of Norway's efforts to shift its $1 trillion "rainyday" fund away from oil, the country's parliament on Wednesdayadopted a plan to drop all dedicated oil and gas explorers andproducers, as defined by stock market indices provider FTSERussell, from the fund's benchmark index.
ConocoPhillips and Hess were both added to the list of thoseclassified as "exploration and production" this month, FTSERussell said, with the change coming into effect on June 24.
Norway's wealth fund data shows it held a stake inConocoPhillips of 1%, worth $714 million, at end-2018, as wellas $64 million worth of corporate bonds issued by the oil major,which was not immediately available for comment.
Selling out of this would would mark the first divestmentfrom one of the world's oil majors by the fund, which can stillinvest in those that have refineries and other downstreamactivities, so-called integrated companies such as Royal DutchShell and ExxonMobil.
Norway pools its revenues from oil and gas production intothe sovereign wealth fund, which declined to say on Thursdaywhat its stakes in ConocoPhillips and Hess were now worth orwhether it had already sold them.
"We don't comment on single companies," said a spokesman forthe fund, which has previously said any divestments would takeplace gradually and over time. The finance ministry said thefund's exclusions would track FTSE Russell's classification.
The fund's stake in Hess, which was not immediatelyavailable for comment, was 0.85% and worth $102 million at theend of 2018, when it also held $40 million of its bonds.
Norway's central bank, which manages the fund, called in2017 for the removal of all oil and gas stocks from itsbenchmark index to reduce its exposure to the risk of apermanent drop in oil prices.
This proposal, which would have affected some 6% of thefund's holdings, worth around $37 billion, was rejected by theNorwegian finance ministry which instead put forward the planadopted this week by lawmakers and affects just 1.2% of thefund's overall equity holdings.
ConocoPhillips continues to produce oil from Norway'sEkofisk field, which Phillips Petroleum discovered in 1969 andwas the first oil discovery made off the Norwegian coast,kickstarting what has become the Nordic country's top industry.
Hess sold its own Norwegian offshore assets to Aker BPin 2017.
(Editing by Alexander Smith)