Drilling relief wells near the Elgin oil rig in the North Sea to stop a natural gas leak may take more than six months, French oil major Total SA (TOT), which owns the rig, said Friday.

"The time taken to drill wells in Elgin surpassed six months so it is right to expect a similar timeframe (for the relief wells operation)," Eric Casse, Total's Drilling & Well Operations Manager for Europe, the Americas and Central Asia said in a video posted by Total on its website.

Total is currently making a relief well to cut off the gas at the level of the reservoir at about one kilometer from the problematic well. To play it safe, the company plans to drill two relief wells, the second one acting as a backup.

Total had already said it was considering drilling relief wells but had refused to say how long the drilling would take.

The company is also working on another solution: pumping heavy mud into the well to balance the pressure and end the leak, Casse said. That solution is quicker than the relief well but it needs staff to be sent on to the rig. A crew of Total engineers and specialists from Wild Well Control Inc.--the company that helped tackle the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and Kuwait's raging oil fires--returned Thursday from a first mission to the rig since it was abandoned and powered down 12 days ago. The rig had to be evacuated after a sudden rush of pressure in a volatile well sent gas and mud spewing out from the drilling deck.

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