Archive
OIL&GAS FROM LOW PERMEABILITY PLAYS. Latest published applications 2015-2017. Energy, gas or water consumption
Summary
One of the most important issues associated with the process of hydrocarbon extraction using fracking is the high level of energy, gas and water consumption. So, for example, when performing hydraulic fracturing, for each well during its life, several thousand m³ of special fluids are required, in which, in the overwhelming majority of cases, water is the basis. In the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration, in recent years oil production from hydraulically-fractured wells has exceeded production from conventional wells, so the volume of annual water consumption has increased significantly. In addition, there is an increase in the average water consumption per well. This is especially relevant for oil-producing regions prone to water stress such as Niobarra, Bakken, and Permian. In addition, water consumption costs are an increasingly significant contributor to total production costs. This statistical bulletin presents a selection of patent applications for which proposed technical solutions may contribute to solving the problems described above. Most of the applications, as in previous years, were created by US residents; however, specialists from China and Canada also seriously compete on this topic. Halliburton Energy Inc. is the undisputed leader in this area.
A selection of patent applications related to the energy, gas or water consumption in the process of oil and gas extraction from low permeability plays and published by patent offices around the globe in 2015-2017 is provided for review in the present bulletin. General research methodology can be found at Advanced Energy Technologies website. The present bulletin includes 728 patent applications, prepared by applicants from 19 countries and registered in 25 patent offices. The patent documents mention 249 applicants and 569 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 registered the largest number of patent applications were USPTO (US), CNIPA (CN) 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 Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. (USA), Baker Hughes Incorporated (USA), Evolution Well Services, LLC (USA), Flowpro Well Technology, A.S. (NO), Saudi Arabian Oil Company (SA), Beijing Rechsand Science & Technology Group Co., Ltd (CN), Hydrus Technology Pty Ltd (AU), Praxair Technology Inc. (US), Alliant Techsystems Inc (US), Foret Plasma Labs, LLC (US). Data representing the share in the established intellectual property market, distribution of applications 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 those not being a part of patent family.
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 registered patent applications.
Who needs this bulletin?
The statistics bulletin under examination serves as one of the variants to monitor advanced technical achievements in the specified industrial sector. The statistical data, rating evaluations and carefully selected patent documents provided in the bulletin can be of interest for inventors, students and educators, engineers, as well as for businessmen and investors, who in one way or another are concerned with the problems of the development of oil and gas extraction technologies from low permeability plays.
