Clariant Oil Services has announced the successful offshore deployment of HYTREAT ECO, an anti-agglomerant low dosage hydrate inhibitor (LDHI-AA) technology.

Clariant says the inhibitor satisfies both the performance demands of hydrate management and OSPAR’s stringent North Sea environmental requirements. OSPAR is the international framework for protecting the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic offshore regions.

Now having been deployed in fields offshore Norway and the United Kingdom, the technology is said to represent a significant advancement in flow assurance, enabling operators to reduce chemical consumption while maintaining reliable hydrate control in some of the world’ most demanding environments.

Gas hydrate formation remains one of the most technically and operationally challenging flow assurance issues in subsea oil and gas production. Under high-pressure, low-temperature conditions, hydrates can form ice-like blockages that threaten production and asset integrity.

Operators in the North Sea have traditionally relied on large volumes of methanol or monoethylene glycol (MEG) to prevent hydrate formation, creating significant logistical and environmental burdens.

Clariant says that the LDHI-AA technology keeps hydrate particles dispersed and flowing through production systems, delivering reliable flow assurance at dosage rates that, in the North Sea field trials, ranged from less than 1% to 2% by volume on water, an order of magnitude lower than conventional methanol or MEG treatment programs.

The result, Clariant says, is reduced chemical consumption, lower offshore logistics requirements, and a smaller operational footprint.

Fully compliant with OSPAR – the international framework for protecting the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic – and stringent North Sea environmental requirements, Clariant says that HYTREAT ECO is the first low-dosage hydrate management solution to achieve this level of environmental acceptance.

In Norway, HYTREAT ECO supported hydrate management in a mature offshore asset, helping operators manage increasing water production while reducing reliance on glycol regeneration capacity. During the trial, the technology enabled a successful well restart following a 24-hour shut-in entirely within the hydrate stability zone, one of the most demanding operational scenarios in subsea production, with produced water quality confirmed to meet overboard discharge limits throughout. On the strength of this field performance, HYTREAT ECO was awarded a Technology Readiness Level of TRL7 on the internationally recognized 9-point TRL scale, the industry benchmark confirming field-proven performance under full-scale commercial conditions.

In the United Kingdom, the technology replaced subsea methanol injection in a gas condensate field operating under extreme subcooling conditions. Shut-in subcooling in the riser reached up to 25°C at pressures of 130 barg, among the most severe offshore conditions recorded for any LDHI field deployment. Clariant says that the HYTREAT ECO delivered effective hydrate control during both normal operations and cold restart scenarios in this deployment.