"Operators of subsea fields on the continental shelf spend huge sums on combating insidious ice-like crystals, but a chemical jigsaw puzzle...is being pieced together [and] is at last offering hope of a less expensive means of protection against this "ice"....The jigsaw puzzle is a matter of solving mysteries posed by Nature when... hydrates are formed. Hydrates are ice-like crystals that can form in the "blood vessels" of the petroleum industry at the seabed: the pipelines that bring oil and gas ashore from subsea fields..."[This could] help to reduce the currently high costs of preventing hydrates from forming in pipelines...The backcloth to the project is oil and gas production from subsea fields, from which the well-flow is brought to nearby platforms or ashore by pipeline...."