Huge Gas Cloud Building Around Rig In North Sea.

All of my friends work offshore in those fields , Im pretty sure one of them has worked on this platform in their time there !
I will ask around to see whats what !

Most of these platforms are all falling to bits , My mate jumped off his last platform as he was fed up patching up old machinery with spare parts. As it was so old he couldnt order new parts for it as they stopped making them.

He jumped to a ship and now works on a 5 year old ship with shiny new everything !

now shell evacuates personal from there's shearwater rigg ...7km from the mobile rigg.......

www.rtl.nl...(/actueel/rtlnieuws/economie/)/components/actueel/rtlnieuws/2012/03_maart/27/economie/shell-evacueert-deel-personeel-noordzee.xml

somebody please confirm that these bad boys are not heading towards the North Sea ! ?

www.ustream.tv...

looking like it's a green for go finally, and am just sitting here in Aberdeenshire .....wondering ,what's the odds?

Here is the latest press release on the situation from TOTAL UK LTD's corporate website.

ELGIN UPDATE 2
26 Mar 2012 - 21.00

Further to previously issued updates, TOTAL E&P UK confirms that the gas leak at the Elgin Well Head Platform remains ongoing, although the situation is currently stable. We continue to take all possible measures to try to identify the source and cause of the leak and to bring it under control.

Meanwhile, the presence of a sheen on the water has been confirmed in the vicinity of the platform and Oil Spill Response (OSRL) have carried out two aerial surveillance flights to assess the situation. Initial reports from OSRL indicate no change in the size and appearance of this over the course of the day. A further two flights will be carried out tomorrow.

TEP UK have today met with Secretary of State’s Representative (SOSREP), the HSE, DECC, Marine Scotland and the Coastguard and provided a full update. The SOSREP will continue to be fully briefed of all developments.

We have mobilised experts from elsewhere in the TOTAL Group to offer additional assistance and help us deal with the incident. At this stage, the precise cause of the leak remains unclear.

Now that all personnel are in a place of safety, all our efforts continue to focus on bringing the gas leak under control.

We will continue to make information available via the following:

www.facebook.com/TotalEPUK

www.twitter.com/TotalEPUK

Telephone number for media and relative enquiries – 01224 297000

lets all hope that the gas cloud does not ignite

PEACE,
RK

Latest reports on Sky News are saying that the rig with the leak is owned and operated by Total (French), but that Shell is evacuating it's rigs in the area too because of the risk. The North Sea has pretty much the best safety record when it comes to drilling, and I doubt this is a company cutting corners because it is so tightly regulated. Its more likely because we are being forced to drill for much more challenging deposits.

The Shell right they have partially evacuated is pretty close to the Total rig with the leak, but they were reporting Shell is also evacuating another rig, and on the map it looked really far off - that can't be a good sign.

oh my days

Wow i thought this might of been what i saw this morning at 5am in Delaware when i was walking with a friend around the track near my area big puffs of smoke started forming out of no where at first i was like ok chemtrails contrails exhaust from a plane but the smoke was coming straight down from four different spots and two at the same time like the pilot's would be nose diving and the smoke seeemed to glow to a certin extent and i didn't see any planes to be honest strange stuff.......

Anyway i hope they get this gas cloud under control......

I'm in Edinburgh thats pretty far from Elgin. That's going to make a hell of a bang if someone lights a cigarette

oh great! here we go again!
and no one will work with it.
becuse it will blow them up!

Originally posted by OliArtist
I doubt this is a company cutting corners

Nobody goes into this business with the mindset of cutting corners. The future of major companies are correlated to these stations, and once they are gone, there's a serious loss of profit. It's like running a semi-transportation business and losing one of your trucks. Insurance may cover the losses, but between that and replacement, a chunk of the gross is gone and the investment into a new one takes time and resources. There's every incentive for safety and precision protocols.

But nearby rigs [of different businesses] being told to evacuate is not good news.

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has been monitoring the situation and said there was no indication of a risk of significant pollution to the environment.
Like someone said in a past post gas like this escapes the ocean floor all the time.

reply to post by Violater1


Don't forget Haliburton and TransOcean, the actually culprits behind the Gulf Spill.

reply to post by stirling


well nevermind...I should have kept reading...this is going to suck pretty much, huh

Now they in a pickle. If gas is "welling" out, that is a most dire situation. This is a rig on the ocean. If gas is bubbling up below the rig itself and they have evacuated... Thinking allowed. How do they return to the rig? By air, a helo might set off the fumes and... by sea a craft could scrape against the support structure, make a spark and again... so now what? Waiting for it to blow? Maybe they could parachute divers in and they could assess the situation by swimming to the structure and uhh... never mind.

I have no idea what standard non sparking response to a scenario like this is. Light a match?

On land, if the complex catches fire and the mine collapses they can run and never come back like in Usbekistan:


Edit: At least there the gas is being burned off and not just venting noxious toxious to the atmosphere. On the ocean, the problem magnifies itself. They split to keep from getting blown up. Now what?

And how do we get video of what the plume looks like?

I am thinking, could this be related to the earthquakes in that area in the last 14 days?
Or maybe they are to far away?

www.emsc-csem.org...

Citizen Response Date & Time UTC Latitude degrees Longitude degrees Depth km Mag [+] Region name [+] 2012-03-24 11:06:29.0 60.64 N 6.37 E 20 3.2 SOUTHERN NORWAY
2012-03-24 06:05:17.0 60.63 N 4.36 E 30 3.2 SOUTHERN NORWAY
31 V 2012-03-14 19:22:25.0 59.51 N 5.50 E 10 3.5 SOUTHERN NORWAY

reply to post by intrptr


What is that clip you posted? It is pretty awe inspiring! Is it a collapsed mine or well? Bloody big hole judging by the size of the guy at the edge.

reply to post by Mianeye


I am not an expert but i would say no to that. The rig is in a different area to the quakes, which were located far closer to Norway. Also, i have to say i would have no idea how a gas rig would cause them. Earthquakes linked to gas drilling have been to do with the fracking process - this is an entirely different extraction process.

reply to post by Flavian

It's what happens to a gas well (on land) that caught fire in the 70's? Mine collapsed and it has been burning ever since.

Door to Hell

They have evacuated all rigs within 4 miles of the Elgin platform. Also a no fly-zone and no shipping has been implemented and texas hell fighters have been flown out to scotland to tackle the problem......... Sounds like they expecting one hell of an explosion up there. These are the same people who want to drill in the arctic, one of the most dangerous and inaccessible places on the planet..... Boggles the mind..

reply to post by intrptr


Thanks for that, just had a skim through some of the info. What a freaky place! I have heard of parts of Kazakhstan where the rocks literally burn on the ground but never seen anything like this before. I think the freakiest part is that it has been burning for 35 years solidly and no one has any idea how much gas is left to burn off.