The Norwegian Petroleum Institute is a Norwegian lobbying

Lobbying

Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...

 organization formed in 1970. Its purpose is to "attend to and promote the common interest of the [petroleum] industry".

The petroleum companies Esso Norge

Esso

Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...

, YX Energi Norge, Norske Shell

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

, Statoil Norge

Statoil

Statoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...

, AGA AS

AGA AB

AGA AB, previously AB Gasaccumulator and AB Svenska Gasaccumulator, was a Swedish industrial gas company founded in 1904. Nobel Prize laureate Gustaf Dalén was instrumental in the success of the company. Important inventions included the AGA cooker and the Dalén light. In the 1990's AGA conceived...

, Castrol Norge

Castrol

Castrol is a brand of industrial and automotive lubricants which is applied to a large range of oils, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications...

, Yara Industrial, Nynas, Valvoline Oil and Progas are behind the Norwegian Petroleum Institute. It also has ties with the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise

Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise

The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise is an employers' organisation in Norway with more than 16,000 members.It was founded in 1989 as a merger of the Federation of Norwegian Industries, the Norwegian Employers' Confederation and the Federation of Norwegian Craftsmen..The president is Kristin...

. Its board consists of Håvard Kjærstad

Håvard Kjærstad

Håvard Kjærstad is a Norwegian businessperson.He graduated from the Norwegian School of Management in 1972 with a degree in business economy. He was employed at Esso in 1970 and is currently Nordic Retail Sales Manager. He is also chairman of the board at the Norwegian Petroleum Institute.Kjærstad...

 (ESSO), Tage Kruse (YX), Lars Inge Lunde (Shell), Dag Roger Rinde

Dag Roger Rinde

Dag Roger Rinde is a Norwegian businessperson.He is the managing director of Statoil Norway and a member of the board at the Norwegian Petroleum Institute.-References:...

 (Statoil), Sven Borger Fiedler (Castrol) and secretary Inger-Lise M. Nøstvik.

It has been criticized for manufacturing quasi-journalistic information and news, which was picked up by the Norwegian news media, and eventually had political impact.