The present review contains data on 3713 patent applications that were collected as of the date of this publication and registered in 2019 by 796 applicants from 27 countries in 28 patent offices around the world in the field related to the issues of horizontal directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing of hydrocarbon reservoirs. Patent document retrieval and processing procedures are available on the Advanced Energy Technologies website.
The most popular with applicants were the Chinese Patent Offices (CNIPA) and the United States (USPTO), where 31.8% and 23.4% of patent applications were registered, respectively. More than 5% of applications on the subject under consideration were also found in EPO (EPC states), WIPO and CIPO (Canada). 6.5% of patent applications were filed with patent offices not included in the top 10.
Distribution of patent applications, published by the top 10 patent offices
| Patent office | Number of documents, 2019 | Share of total, % |
|---|---|---|
| State Intellectual Property Office, China | 1180 | 31.8 |
| United States Patent and Trademark Office | 869 | 23.4 |
| World Intellectual Property Organization | 374 | 10.0 |
| European Patent Office | 318 | 8.6 |
| Canadian Intellectual Property Office | 198 | 5.3 |
| National Institute of Industrial Property, Brazil | 149 | 4.0 |
| Intellectual Property Office, United Kingdom | 122 | 3.3 |
| Mexican Institute of Industrial Property | 99 | 2.7 |
| Norwegian Industrial Property Office | 85 | 2.3 |
| IP Australia | 77 | 2.1 |
Source: Advanced Energy Technologies
Residents of China and the USA remained the most active applicants in 2019 and their cumulative share exceeded 82%. They are followed by the representatives of Saudi Arabia, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Japan and Norway.
Representatives from 17 countries registered their applications in the patent office of the USA, making it the most popular office among non-residents, and the most noticeable interest here was shown by the residents of Saudi Arabia, Canada, China, Germany and United Kingdom. In the Mexican patent office the whole 100% of applications were filed by non-residents. In NIPO (NO), IPO (GB), INPI (BR) and IP Australia this share was between 97% and 99%
Distribution of countries of the world by the number of resident applicants in patent applications
Source: Advanced Energy Technologies
Low efficiency of main processes prevailed in the list of basic technological problems for horizontal directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing (more than 21% of patent applications). In addition to them, technical solutions often related to High OPEX / Repair and replacement and High OPEX / Operation and consumables. A list of the main problems addressed by the applicants is presented below.
Distribution of technical problems in the patent applications found
AOP - Administrative and organizational problems; EB - Ecological balance; EGWC - Energy, gas or water consumption; EPM - Environmental protection measures; HCEI - High CAPEX / Exploration and Infrastructure; HCEP - High CAPEX / Equipment production; HCG - High costs in general; HOOC - High OPEX / Operation and consumables; HORR - High OPEX / Repair and replacement; LEE - Low Efficiency / Exploration; LEG - Low efficiency in general; LEMP - Low efficiency / Main processes; LESP - Low efficiency / Secondary processes; UP - Unclear problem
Source: Advanced Energy Technologies
Among the technological processes the inventors demonstrated the strongest interest in relation to the technologies of Drilling and well elements – 25.6% of applications, as well as in Hydraulic fracturing equipment and methods (23%), Hydraulic fracturing materials / Working fluids (16%) and Exploration and site development (14%).
A little more than 2000 of individual IPC subgroups were mentioned in the patent applications collected, while in total they were assigned 12511 times. The most popular among them were: C09K 8/68 Compositions for stimulating production by acting on the underground formation/ containing organic compounds – met in 2.7% of applications; C09K 8/80 Compositions for reinforcing fractures, e.g. compositions of proppants used to keep the fractures open – 2.6% and E21B 43/26 Enhanced recovery methods for obtaining hydrocarbons / by forming crevices or fractures – 4.8%..
More detailed information on the methodology as well as on the results of patent researches in the most important fields of contemporary energy industry can be found at Advanced Energy Technologies.
