Established in 1986, this forum is chaired by the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authprity (Havtil) and provides a meeting place for representatives of employees, employers and government.

It gives these parties the opportunity to keep continuously abreast of work on the regulations and to make their views known on important proposals along the way. That leads in turn to a stronger ownership of and consensus on final proposals for regulatory development.

In addition, the forum contributes to clarifying differences and similarities between operations on land and offshore.

The forum is intended to facilitate:

  • information about and discussion, advice and possible feedback on the work of developing and maintaining the HSE regulations for the petroleum sector.
  • information about and discussion on the practical implementation and utilisation of the HSE regulations.

The following items are included in the agenda as and when relevant:

  • plans for regulatory development
  • mandates for specific regulatory work
  • status reports related to ongoing regulatory work
  • collaboration on regulatory development
  • coordination of external consultation processes
  • draft EU directives/EEA implementation
  • information about interpretations of matters of principle
  • information on standardisation work
  • information on consultation documents prepared by other players
  • information from the parties concerning ongoing activities of interest to the forum
  • in-depth presentations of important issues
  • other subjects related to setting parameters in the petroleum sector which could also be relevant.

Representatives

The Regulatory Forum comprises representatives from

  • Ministry of Energy (observer)
  • The Cooperating Organisations (DSO - the Norwegian Union of Marine Engineers and the Norwegian Maritime Officers' Association)
  • Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority
  • United Federation of Trade Unions
  • Norwegian Union of Industry and Energy Workers (IE)
  • Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO)
  • Norwegian Organisation of Managers and Executives (Lederne)
  • Norwegian Environment Agency
  • Norwegian Society of Engineers and Technologists (NITO)
  • Norwegian Shipowners Association (NR)
  • Federation of Norwegian Industries
  • Offshore Norge
  • The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA)
  • Norwegian Union of Energy Workers (Safe)
  • Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA)
  • Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals (TEKNA)
  • County Governor of Rogaland
  • The Norwegian Electrician and IT workers union (EL og IT Forbundet)