Four days into a gas leak which forced the evacuation of an oil rig in the North Sea, the French energy giant, Total, has said it "may be months" before the leak stops. The leak has led to, according to Reuters, a "cloud of explosive natural gas boiling up from the North Sea."

 

Many are worried about the possibility of the rig exploding, and the possible damage this could cause. "If the gas cloud somehow finds an ignition source, we could be looking at complete destruction," said Jake Molloy, an official with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, in an interview with CNN. "This is an unprecedented situation and we really are in the realms of the unknown," Molloy said of the leak from the Elgin platform in the North Sea, about 150 miles (240 km) east of the Scottish city of Aberdeen.