Total: North Sea gas leak stable

There is a risk that a natural gas leak off the coast of Scotland could catch fire but the situation in the North Sea is stable, said French major Total. An exclusion zone around the Elgin platform in the North Sea was evacuated after Total confirmed a significant natural gas leak about 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen this week. The British Department of Energy and Climate Change, in a statement Monday, described the sheen as gas condensate, which it said should disperse naturally "within hours of release." David Hainsworth, a safety and environment manager at Total, told the BBC that power at the rig was shut off after the crew was removed. "The area was over-flown twice yesterday by spotter planes to look at the sheen on the sea -- that is about the same, at 6 nautical miles in length," he said. "Clearly there is a risk of ignition and a fire." A member of the offshore workers union told the BBC that the sea near the rig was "boiling" though that contradicts somewhat with Total statements. The supermajor said it was planning to drill a relief well to control the leak, a measure that could take several weeks. A spokesman from the DECC told British newspaper The Daily Telegraph the well was no longer producing gas. Hainsworth noted that, while all "usual sources of ignition" were taken from the site, "you never say never."