[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 89 (Thursday, May 8, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26455-26456]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-10525]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Antitrust Division


Notice Pursuant to the National Cooperative Research and 
Production Act of 1993--Cooperative Research Group on Evaluation of 
Distributed Leak Detection Systems--Performance Testing

    Notice is hereby given that, on April 3, 2014, pursuant to Section 
6(a) of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, 
15 U.S.C. 4301 et seq. (``the Act''), Southwest Research Institute--
Cooperative Research Group on Evaluation of Distributed Leak Detection 
Systems--Performance Testing (``LDS-PT'') has filed written 
notifications simultaneously with the

[[Page 26456]]

Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission disclosing changes in 
its membership, nature and objective. The notifications were filed for 
the purpose of extending the Act's provisions limiting the recovery of 
antitrust plaintiffs to actual damages under specified circumstances. 
Specifically, Chevron Pipe Line Company, Bellaire, TX; and BP, Tulsa, 
OK, have been added as parties to this venture. The changes in its 
nature and objectives are: The period of performance has been extended 
to May 15, 2014; the scope of the planned activity will enter Phase II, 
which is intended to study the thermal and acoustic signals generated 
by leaks in submerged pipelines and then to perform end-to-end testing 
in which a leak is simulated and the technologies' alarm systems are 
evaluated. The objectives are to test the suitability of such 
technologies for detecting leaks and to understand some of the key 
parameters (e.g., hole location) that impact detection. Phase II will 
serve as the mechanism to the evaluation of these leak detection 
systems, facilitating (1) pooling of resources to reduce financial 
impact to any one company for moving forward with product validation, 
(2) providing the leak detection vendor community with drivers to 
increase innovation, (3) consolidating various test cases into a more 
uniform and standardized approach, and (4) providing a mechanism for 
capturing industry knowledge of technology limitations.
    No other changes have been made in either the membership or planned 
activity of the group research project. Membership in this group 
research project remains open, and LDS-PT intends to file additional 
written notifications disclosing all changes in membership.
    On April 6, 2012, LDS-PT filed its original notification pursuant 
to Section 6(a) of the Act. The Department of Justice published a 
notice in the Federal Register pursuant to Section 6(b) of the Act on 
May 4, 2012 (77 FR 26583).

Patricia A. Brink,
Director of Civil Enforcement, Antitrust Division.
[FR Doc. 2014-10525 Filed 5-7-14; 8:45 am]
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