Environment
It’s Happening Again – Only Now It’s Shell and a Massive Gas (Not Oil) Leak off Scotland’s Coast
Elgin platform gas leak: Exclusion zone in place
Shell Platform in North Sea Off Coast of Aberdeen
Exclusion zones have been put in place around the Elgin platform in the North Sea, which has been suffering a serious gas leak since Sunday.
Coastguards said shipping was being ordered to keep at least two miles away and there was a three-mile exclusion zone for aircraft.
A cloud of gas was reported to be surrounding the platform, which is located 150 miles (240km) off Aberdeen.
Workers from a second platform and drilling rig have been removed.
Elgin platform gas leak: Exclusion zone in place
Shell has moved 120 non-essential staff from the Shearwater platform and Hans Deul drilling rig, about four miles from the Elgin, because of the drifting gas.
The oil giant said the move was a “precautionary measure”.
Emergency plan
Total, which operates the Elgin platform, said the situation was stable but it had not yet been able to identify the source of the leak.
A sheen of between two and 23 tonnes of gas condensate, and measuring six nautical miles in length, has been reported on the water nearby, and Total has activated its Oil Pollution Emergency Plan.
Jake Molloy, of the RMT union which represents offshore workers, said many had been watching the Old Firm game between Rangers and Celtic when the alarm was raised on Sunday afternoon.
He said: “Just as it finished a PA announcement went out to say everyone was to go to the muster point and this was not a drill.
“The stand-by vessel had identified the sea boiling, as it were, below the installation – suggesting there was gas coming up there and there was some kind of vapour cloud sitting on the surface of the sea.”
