Flare alight at North Sea platform hit by gas leak

A spokesman for the French oil giant admitted the flare was alight three days after the Elgin platform, 150 miles (241 kilometres) off the coast of Aberdeen in eastern Scotland, was completely evacuated.

"The flare is alight, as it would normally be on a platform," the spokesman said.

Experts have expressed concern that gas flowing from the platform could come into contact with the flame and cause an explosion.

But David Hainsworth, health, safety and environment manager for Total UK, said the plume of gas leaking from the platform was currently flowing away from the flame.

"We know the weather forecast is such that the wind direction remains the same for the following five to six days and we're evaluating options to extinguish this flare," Hainsworth told BBC television late Tuesday.

Flares on offshore platforms are commonly used to burn off excess gas that the rig does not use or capture.

Martin Preston, a marine pollution specialist at Liverpool University, said it was surprising that the flare was still burning three days after the platform was shut down.

"With a camping stove, when you turn the cylinder off, the flame will burn for a bit then go out," he told BBC radio. "Much the same would have been expected here."

Preston said it was "very difficult to predict" whether the platform would explode, adding that the gas would be lying low around the base of the rig although a swirl of wind could force it higher and into contact with the flame.

"The flare is obviously at the top of the platform and the gas is leaking out around the legs of it, so there's some physical separation," he said.

"It's obviously going to mean that no one can get near to the platform to do any work until that flare is out. It's just not going to be safe," he said.

Total have said the leak is the most serious problem it had faced in the North Sea in a decade.

More than 300 people have been evacuated from two rigs since the leak was discovered on Sunday and a six-mile long sheen of gas condensate has spread on the water nearby.

Coastguards have banned ships from travelling within two nautical miles (3.7 kilometres) of the platform while aircraft have been ordered to stay at least three nautical miles away.

More than 230 workers were evacuated from Elgin on Monday, while Anglo-Dutch giant Shell has shut down production at its Shearwater platform and Noble Hans Deul rig four miles away, and evacuated 85 crew as a precautionary measure.

Total said it was considering various ways of stopping the leak, including a relief well, although that could take up to six months.