Archive
OIL&GAS FROM LOW PERMEABILITY PLAYS. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Directional Drilling
Summary
Directional drilling is a technique used to access oil in underground reserves. It gives operators the possibility to reduce costs by using fewer wells to penetrate and produce reservoirs at their optimum locations. Directional drilling within the formation can also extend the reach of a well and increase its flow rates. There are three types of directional drilling, including extended-reach drilling, horizontal drilling, and multiple laterals off a single main well bore. Horizontal drilling with wellbores exceeding 80 degrees is used to drastically increase production. Nowadays, most directional-well planning is performed on the computer using technologies, such as 3D visualization and 3D earth models to create and optimize well paths through reservoir targets. However, directional drilling involves several technical challenges concerning the well profile and the reduced axial component of gravity acting along the borehole. Also, as the angle of inclination increases, drilling problems become more severe. Furthermore, several directional-drilling-related environmental issues have come into the crosshairs of public discussion: water withdrawals on surface and groundwater supplies and on wetlands can, for example, negatively impact water quality and quantity for aquatic organisms. Accidental spills can contaminate soils. The patents mentioned in this bulletin try to improve some of these issues.
A selection of patents related to directional drilling in unconventional oil and gas and published by patent offices around the globe in 2016-2018 is provided for review in the present bulletin. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. The present bulletin includes 3188 patents, prepared by applicants from 29 countries and registered in 23 patent offices. The patent documents mention 605 applicants and 999 IPC subgroups.
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 patents were USPTO (US), CIPO (CA) and IP Australia (AU).
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.
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 patents by problems, IPC sections, patent offices (and technology indicators). Representatives of the United States prevail among the patenting leaders in the examined period of time, including: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. (US), Baker Hughes Incorporated (US), Landmark Graphics Corporation (US), Schlumberger Technology Corporation (US), Schlumberger Technology B.V. (NL), ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (US), Weatherford Technology Holdings LLC (US), Tatneft (RU), Saudi Arabian Oil Company (SA), Downhole Technology LLC (US).
The bulletin contains lists of the top 10 prominent patents having the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, 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 is provided in the conclusive part of the bulletin.
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 of directional drilling technologies in unconventional oil and gas operations.
