Archive
OIL&GAS FROM LOW PERMEABILITY PLAYS. Latest granted patents 2014-2016. Environment & ecology
Summary
Hydraulic fracturing, combined with direction drilling, has significantly revolutionized the energy industry by increasing the production potential for gas and oil from shale formations. Despite the economic benefits, the concerns about the associated risks for the environment have contributed to fracking being hotly discussed and a highly controversial issue to this day. First of all, fracking fluids pumped into the well typically contain complex chemical additives, which may escape into the groundwater during drilling and cause contamination, thus increasing the hazard potential to human use of drinking water and to aquatic habitats. Apart from that, the environmental issues related to hydraulic fracturing include large water consumption, land cover change, air pollution, and noise. Finally, arguments against fracking include the concern that there is a connection between earthquakes and the fracking process. The proposed bulletin presents recent patents related to environmental issues of oil and gas extraction from low permeability reservoirs, giving an overview of technical solutions, optimization approaches and statistical indicators.
The present bulletin reviews patents granted by patent offices around the globe in 2014-2016 in the field related to environment & ecology in unconventional oil and gas. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. 997 patent documents from 22 patent offices around the world are represented in the bulletin. In total, 287 applicants from 18 countries and 876 subgroups of the International Patent Classification are mentioned.
Key Highlights
Statistical information presented in the bulletin includes distribution of patent documents by years, by patent offices and by applicant countries, applicant-related data (residents and non-residents), and data on the most frequently mentioned International Patent Classification divisions (sections, classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups). The largest number of patents during the period of time under revision was granted by the patent office of China.
Based on the analysis of each of the patents, internal characteristics of unified indicators (technical problems, types of inventive solutions, belonging to one or other technological segment) were found, which allowed specific features for each of the indicators for the entire array of documents to be defined, for instance, to define the leading problems or technical solution types that were disclosed by the inventors the most. Document lists are provided for the ten most popular groups of patent documents with identical unified indicators, including their ID numbers and applicant names.
Data is provided for each of the top 10 applicants, leading in terms of the number of published patent documents among the ones examined in the bulletin, illustrating their share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of documents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices and technology indicators. Representatives of the USA prevail among the patenting leaders in the examined period of time. These leaders include: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. (US), Rohm and Haas Company (US), Dow Global Technologies, LLC (US), Baker Hughes Incorporated (US), Unilever N.V. (NL), Schlumberger Technology B.V. (NL), Unilever PLC (GB), Akzo Nobel Chemicals International B.V. (NL), M-I LLC (US), and Schlumberger Technology Corporation (US).
The prominent documents pages contain the top 10 patents with the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, and the shortest patent pending time.
A list 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 are provided in the conclusive part of the bulletin.
Who needs this bulletin?
The data provided in the proposed bulletin is a timely reflection of the transformations that take place in the intellectual property sector of the industrial direction concerned. A thoroughly edited selection of patent documents can become a good complement to your library of available technical solutions. The bulletin is targeted at inventors, engineers, researchers, managers and business administrators involved in the development of unconventional oil and gas production technologies.
