Archive
OIL&GAS FROM LOW PERMEABILITY PLAYS. Latest published applications 2017-2019. Fracturing: waste utilization
Summary
Hydraulic fracturing allows for the recovery of previously inaccessible reserves of oil and natural gas from reservoirs with low permeability. This technology makes it possible to increase the permeability of formations by creating an artificial network of fractures in the rock by injecting special fluids into the well under high pressure, followed by subsequent hydraulic fracturing. The fracturing fluid usually consists of a mixture of water, proppants and chemical additives. These additives can often contain toxic elements and can pose a threat to the environment by contaminating groundwater. In addition, a large amount of fresh water is required to carry out the fracturing operation. Issues this technology presents of saving water resources and efficient waste disposal are of particular relevance for the successful organization of businesses and the elimination of negative environmental consequences.
The present bulletin reviews patent applications granted by patent offices around the globe in 2017-2019 in the field related to hydraulic fracturing materials, recovery and utilization in the process of oil and gas extraction from low permeability plays. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. 402 patent documents from 22 patent offices around the world are represented in the bulletin. In total, 185 applicants from 12 countries and 385 subgroups of the International Patent Classification are mentioned.
Key Highlights
The bulletin contains statistical data on the distribution of patent documents by years, by patent offices and by applicant countries, applicant-related data (residents and non-residents), data on the most frequently mentioned International Patent Classification divisions (sections, classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups). The top three patent offices that granted the largest number of patent applications were CNIPA (CN), USPTO (US) and WIPO.
For each of the patent documents selected for the examination in the present bulletin the characteristics of unified indicators were preliminary defined, they include: technical problems, types of inventive solutions employed, belonging to one or other technological segment. This allows the internal content for each of the indicators in the aggregate array of documents to be visualized, for instance, to define the sequence and proportional correlation of technical problems the inventive solutions disclosed in the texts aim to solve. A list of the top 10 groups consisting of patent documents with identical unified indicators contains ID numbers and applicant names of respective documents; the groups are sorted by the number of patent documents.
A list of the top 10 applicants by the number of patent documents includes Dow Global Technologies, LLC (USA), Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. (USA), Gradiant Corporation (USA), China Petroleum & Chemical Company (China), Ecolab (USA), PetroChina Company Limited (China), Arkema S.A. (France), Aslam Naveed (USA), Field Water Testing LLC (USA), Forward Water Technologies (Canada).
Data representing the share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of documents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices is provided in the form of tables and diagrams for them.
The prominent documents pages contain the top 10 patent applications with the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, and top prominent single applications.
The conclusive part of the bulletin represents the lists of all of the documents reviewed, arranged by the top 10 groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators and by patent offices with the indication of the ID numbers of the granted patents.
Who needs this bulletin?
The proposed patent statistics bulletin allows the existing trends in the intellectual property market of the specified industrial sector to be timely traced, as well as the possibility of acquiring a carefully selected list of patent documents fully corresponding to the specified subject. The bulletin can be useful for inventors, engineers, scientific workers, and business representatives, who are focused on the development oil and gas extraction from low permeability plays.
