Concerns have been expressed that the oil giant may never be able to find a solution to stemming the leak, which will take the “world’s greatest mechanical engineers” to fix.
Industry union leader Jake Molloy said yesterday the incident was the worst thing that could happen on a North Sea rig and that the “unique” situation made it almost impossible to find a quick solution to stop the gas escaping.
He said: “The gas is leaking from the annulus – that’s the pipelines coming up from the well.
“Normally if gas was leaking you would be able to find a way to plug it up.
“But at the moment there is no obvious way of getting it to stop.
“There is no doubt this is serious.
“It is very unusual for an operator to completely evacuate a rig.
“I’ve spoken to one well engineer who says he’s never encountered this problem before and I am sure I would be safe to say this is likely to be the first incident of its kind in the North Sea.
“There is no way the leak will be fixed in a matter of days and I believe it could even take months before they are able to stop the gas from leaking.
“They are going to have to find the world’s greatest mechanical engineers to find a solution.”
Gas started to leak from the G4 Well Head on the platform after an incident occurred shortly after noon on Sunday.
The “dead well” had been out of use for nearly a year and concerns were initially raised after experts monitoring the situation found that the pressure was increasing between the annulus.
Safety, health and environment manager at Total, David Hainsworth, admitted the situation would be difficult to get under control and said a series of options were being considered.
With the gas still escaping the company is unable to put anyone on to the rig to try to stop the leak so measures are being thought up to try to tackle it from a distance. When asked if the leak could go on for months he said things on the Elgin were “complex” but admitted it could go on for “days or weeks”.
Mr Hainsworth also confirmed the idea of using a relief well was being considered.
He said they were bringing in experts from across the world to assist in fixing the situation as soon as possible.
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