North Sea gas leak: sea 'bubbling' under platform

A gas leak at Total's Elgin oil and gas platform in the North Sea, which led to the evacuation of all 238 workers, continued on Monday with observers claiming the sea looked as if it was "boiling".

Workers on a standby ship at the Elgin field reportedly saw vapour clouds forming and gas bubbling on the surface of the water under the platform, triggering the emergency evacuation on Sunday afternoon.

The Rowan Viking drilling rig was also evacuated and workers taken to other nearby installations before being taken onshore.

A core crew of 19 people initially remained on board the platform but were evacuated in the early hours of Monday morning "as a precautionary measure, due to the ongoing nature of the situation offshore", Total said.

They had arrived back in Aberdeen at 3.28am, leaving the Elgin Processing Utilities and Quarters platform "unmanned and powered down" - a situation that some in the industry claimed was "unprecedented". Read More