North Sea gas leak threatens environmental disaster

Energy giants Total and Shell are downplaying the threat to the environment from the Elgin gas leak , which was first detected last Sunday in a field that lies150 miles off the coast of Scotland . The French Total energy conglomerate which owns the well has evacuated staff from the platform . Shell evacuated 120 oil workers from a nearby rig citing the danger of drifting gas.

“The Norwegian Bellona environmental group that monitors the oil industry has described the Elgin platform as “the well from hell”. The head of the organisation, Frederic Hauge, citing anonymous sources said that platform staff had struggled for 14 hours to contain the leak before having to evacuate the rig on Monday. “They saw the sea bubbling with gas under the platform. This is quite shocking”.’

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/nort-m29.shtml