Oil giant dismisses blast anxiety

Total dismissed the possibility of a blast at the platform on Wednesday, claiming that the prevailing wind direction meant that there was little danger of combustion.

"The flare is still alight on the main production platform, however the wind is blowing the gas plume in the opposite direction away from this flare," said Total spokesman David Hainsworth.

Natural gas is bubbling up less than 100 meters (110 yards) from the flare stack that was left burning when the rig was evacuated.

Total said a surveillance vessel had been sent to the area, approximately 240 kilometers (150 miles) east of the Scottish city of Aberdeen, equipped with remote operation cameras to take underwater images.

More than 230 employees were taken to safety from the platform on Sunday, after it became clear that gas was leaking from a well below the sea floor. The precise source has yet to be located, with an exclusion zone around the rig for sea and air traffic.

Despite the assurances, Total's shares have come under pressure from speculators anxious of the possibility of an environmental problem on the scale of BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, the United States' worst marine oil leak.

Heavy gas lies low

Martin Preston, a marine pollution specialist at the University of Liverpool, told the BBC it was very difficult to predict whether the platform would explode, given the presence of the flare.

In addition to the wind blowing the gas away from the flame, the heavier-than-air gas also lies at a lower level near to the water's surface.

"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."

Oil industry consultant John Shanks told Reuters news agency that the fact the flare had not gone out naturally was unwelcome. "If gas continues to leak at a steady or increased rate over a sustained period of time, the platform could become an explosion waiting to happen," he added.

The British government Wednesday said that a "robust safety regime" was in place when it came to oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.

rc/acb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)