The company at the centre of a North Sea gas leak has been sharing its experience with industry representatives at an event to improve safety offshore.

More than 300 delegates turned out at the Aberdeen seminar to learn lessons to prevent future offshore incidents.

Rarely has safety offshore been more sharply in focus. The recent helicopter ditching and the Elgin gas leak raised difficult questions for the industry.

Taking centre stage at the event was David Hainsworth, Total's health and safety manager. He outlined what happened during the Elgin gas leak which saw the emergency evacuation of more than 200 staff. With the well now plugged work is continuing towards resuming normal operations.

"The theme of the presentation is just to share what happened on Elgin, the follow up, the response, how we dealt with it and where do we go from here.

“We've tried to open with our communication all throughout the incident and this is just a great opportunity to keep sharing information."

Industry initiative Step Change aims to make the UK industry the safest in the world.

Les Linklater, from UK Oil and Gas, said: "It's not just about these two significant events, it's all the minor events that are going that people come together and share throughout the day that they learn from each other.

“We obviously address the big things through our key presentation but actually a lot of the learning goes on in what they've learned on site in their day to day business.”