The leak on the Elgin platform could lead to the loss of enough gas to heat all the homes in Aberdeen for nearly a decade, new figures have revealed.
A National Grid report showed the total power it expected to miss out on would have supplied 1million properties.
And a union leader said that if the leak had hit last year, the loss could have seen gas bills soar.
Operations are suspended at Elgin and surrounding fields while Total battles to stem the leak.
And the UK’s energy network operator said the shutdown could cost millions of pounds of gas.
In its outlook for this summer, the National Grid said up to 81.2billion cubic feet of gas will be lost from total UK production because of the leak.
It said it would have to make up the shortfall from other UK fields – or by importing gas from Norway.
Jim Hannon, founding partner of oil and gas analyst Hannon Westwood, said the National Grid would have to buy around £500million of gas on the wholesale market.
The network operator was losing out on enough gas to power at least 1million homes for a year, said Mr Hannon.
“They now have to buy this gas from somewhere else if that is the UK demand,” he said.
Jake Molloy, regional organiser for the RMT union, said the figures highlight the “fragile situation” the UK’s gas supply is in. He said: “We are very fortunate to some extent that the leak occurred when it did – if this had happened in September or October last year we could have been struggling for gas supplies and we probably would have ended up paying more for our gas bills.”
In its summer outlook 2012 report, the National Grid said the Elgin shutdown meant no gas was flowing through the Shearwater Elgin Area Line (Seal) pipeline, which was expected to contribute around 6% of the UK’s output this summer.
The network operator said although Total hoped to stem the leak by the end of this month, it was prepared for Seal to be down throughout the summer.
Total had to halt production at Elgin and evacuate 238 workers on board last month after the well started spewing seven tonnes of gas every hour.
The French energy giant has previously said it was losing £1million a day in revenue and is working on two operations in an attempt to “kill” the well.
Last night, Total declined to comment.
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