Fluor is developing its expertise in cold flow technology as well as in the transport of hydrates in a slurry form.
Fluor has filed a provisional patent application on self-lubrication of hydrate based slurry pipelines.
It is estimated that there are very large reserves of hydrates in the Arctic and near Japan. Traditionally the technology has been to prevent hydrate formations in pipelines, but the emerging approach is to catch those hydrates and transport them in a slurry form to save on costs of anti-coagulants, expensive insulation etc.