Established in 1864, Det Norske Veritas is an independent foundation working with the objective of 'safeguarding life, property and the environment'. DNV has a total of 5,500 employees, and comprises a network of 300 exclusive offices in 100 countries. DNV's Head Office is in Oslo, Norway.
DNV is a leading provider of safety and reliability services, where classification, certification, verification and advisory services are key activities. The staff consists mainly of highly qualified engineers and technical personnel.
The Society is authorized to act on behalf of some 110 national maritime authorities. As of 1 June 1999 DNV has 22.2 percent market share of the oil tankers worldwide, and 19.6 per-cent of the newbuildings. Of the world's bulk carriers 10.6 per-cent are classed in DNV, and 7.7 percent of the newbuildings are built to DNV class. With regard to container carriers DNV has 2 percent of the ships in operation and 1.8 percent of the newbuildings. In addition, some 120 drilling and service rigs are classed with DNV.
DNV establishes Rules and Guidelines for the classification of ships, mobile offshore platforms and other floating marine structures. It also issues rules and standards for the classification, certification and verification of fixed offshore structures.
DNV is the leading classification society in certification of Safety and Quality Management systems for shipping companies based on DNV's SEP rules, the ISM code and ISO 9000.
DNV is also assigned work on more than 500 process plants worldwide. DNV is accredited by 14 countries to certify quality assurance systems according to the ISO 9000 standards, and has so far certified close to 22,000 companies. DNV's Safety Rating System is used at over 6,000 industrial sites throughout the world.
DNV provides certification of management systems, products and personnel to the landbased and offshore industries. Among accredited quality system certification (ISO 9000/BS 5750), DNV is among the world-wide market leaders with a market share of some six percent.
DNV is also a leading provider of advisory services within safety-, environment- and quality management, as well as a specialist in technical services and software.