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

[1] The petroleum companies Esso Norge, YX Energi Norge, Norske Shell, Statoil Norge, AGA AS, Castrol Norge, Yara Industrial, Nynas, Valvoline Oil and Progas are behind the Norwegian Petroleum Institute.

[1] It also has ties with the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise.

[2] Its board consists of Håvard Kjærstad (ESSO), Tage Kruse (YX), Lars Inge Lunde (Shell), Dag Roger Rinde (Statoil), Sven Borger Fiedler (Castrol) and secretary Inger-Lise M.

[3] 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.