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OIL&GAS FROM LOW PERMEABILITY PLAYS. Latest published applications 2017-2019. Auxiliary means for fracturing
Summary
Assessing the potential yield of unconventional hydrocarbon deposits is a comprehensive process which includes an extensive examination of the reservoir to analyse the feasibility of cost-efficient production over a certain period of time. Formerly, hydrocarbon exploration was conducted by simply looking for signs of underground formations on the surface, such as seepages of oil or gas emitted from underground. However, as oil and natural gas seepages do not frequently occur, the exploration process was rather inefficient and difficult. Nowadays, exploration methods are largely based on the use of advanced technologies to locate potential production sites. During the initial phase of underground reservoir exploration, reservoir characteristics such as the accumulation of hydrocarbons, geophysical characteristics, including viscosity, density, gas content, water saturation, porosity, permeability, etc., as well as the boundaries of a reservoir and possible dynamic changes during production are analysed, which is key to selecting the most efficient production technique, reducing production costs and optimising the drilling process. To do so, a great variety of seismic, magnetic, electric, as well as geophysical methods, including exploratory boring, is used in order to determine if the reservoir corresponds to the required characteristics. Especially, high-precision 3D seismic testing delivers valuable data concerning the boundaries of subsurface layers and also the gas content of a reservoir. The applications presented in this bulletin try to make a contribution to further improving the underground exploration process.
The present bulletin reviews patent applications registered by patent offices around the globe in 2017-2019 in the field related to auxiliary means for fracturing. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. 1434 patent documents from 31 patent offices around the world are represented in the bulletin. In total, 240 applicants from 16 countries and 1200 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 registered the largest number of patent applications were USPTO (US), CNIPA (CN) and INPI (BR).
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 applications 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), Saudi Arabian Oil Company (SA), Ecolab (US), Dow Global Technologies, LLC (US), Multi-chem group LLC (US), Oren Technologies, LLC (US), Rohm and Haas Company (US), Thru Tubing Solutions, Inc. (US), China Petroleum & Chemical Company (CN).
The bulletin contains lists of the top 10 prominent patent applications having the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, and those not being part a of patent family.
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 registered patent applications is 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. 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 directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing production technologies.
