Pipe cleaner

A team from Heriot-Watt University has discovered a novel way to transport natural gas products and prevent expensive blockages that hold up production, potentially saving the industry billions of pounds.

The technique uses chemical additives to prevent gas hydrates forming an icy slush in the high-pressure, low temperature environment of oil and gas pipelines running along the sea bed or through cold regions.

By reducing transport costs and the overall price of fuel production, the technique could allow oil and gas firms to continue exploiting fields that are not fully depleted, but have been abandoned as uneconomical, such as those off the UK coast. This would reduce the UK’s dependence on oil and gas imports.

Hydrates have long been a problem for the industry. Oil and gas companies have previously tried to prevent them from forming by insulating or heating pipes, but this has proved expensive and has had only limited success.