Following the gas leak at Total's Elgin platform in the North Sea that has spewed gas into the air for over a week. An Investigation by Greenpeace has revealed evidence of environmental pollution.

The Greenpeace ship, Koningin Juliana, arrived near the exclusion zone on Monday some 5 kilometres from the Elgin platform to collect their first samples of water and air, which will be analysed in Germany.

Marine expert Christian Bussau who is leading the expedition said the leak was a serious accident which Total would struggle to contain and they should stop oil drilling in the Arctic

"When Greenpeace arrived early this morning at the platform we found oil on the water surface, we smelt the gas and chemical in the air and we took water and oil samples, and we took air samples. We used our gas detection camera to make the gas visible, which comes out from the platform. What we can say is that this accident is a serious accident. It will not be easy for Total to solve the problem."

To halt the leak, Total plans to move drilling rigs from two nearby fields, fly staff to the platform if it is deemed safe and send two underwater inspection vehicles to check where best to drill relief wells. But, if that fails they have also assembled a team of experts who advised on BP's Gulf of Mexico Spill and Kuwait's raging oil fires in recent years.