The Rogaland section of NRK broadcast a report on 14 May 2012 which contained several images of opencast mining to illustrate a story about Statoil’s oil sand activities in Canada. Statoil is of the opinion that the images give a misleading impression.

Statoil is not involved in opencast mining operations, and the company has therefore lodged a complaint with PCC against the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) for violation of good media practices.

Statoil started production from its oil sand project in Canada in 2011. These resources are recovered through wells, and by injecting steam to facilitate production.

Oil sand can also be recovered using opencast mining, which entails quite different environmental issues. Statoil is not involved in such practices. On a number of occasions, NRK and other Norwegian media players have used the wrong images in reports involving Statoil. NRK has earlier apologised wrong use of images, and other media have published corrections after similar use of such images.

Tags: Statoil