NEW YORK (TheStreet) – Total is paying a big price — as measured by the market reaction — for the natural gas leak in its North Sea Elgin platform on Tuesday, which the oil major said could take as much as six months to contain.

The six-month time-frame to drill a relief well sounds eerily similar to the “last resort” emergency plan that BP pursued during the Macondo well disaster. A deep water natural gas disaster, though, can’t compare to an oil spill when it comes to potential environment damage.

The 7% decline in Total shares on Tuesday is a punishment born of the post-Macondo era. Energy investors shoot first and ask questions later. Indeed, the firing was rapid in ADR shares of Total — 27 million shares traded for an ADR that usually trades less than 3 million shares.

Total faces the biggest deepwater disaster response test since the BP Macondo well disaster. The environment may be luckier this time.

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Continued here: The Science Behind Total’s North Sea Gas Leak: This Isn’t BP 2.0

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