OIL&GAS FROM LOW PERMEABILITY PLAYS. Latest granted patents 2016-2018. Working fluids
Summary
Hydraulic fracturing technology enables highly efficient hydrocarbon production in low-permeability reservoirs. To create and enlarge a fracture network within the rock formation, a fracturing fluid is injected at a high rate and under high pressure into the target reservoir. The complex physicochemical processes of fracturing, as well as the variety of natural reservoir characteristics, place high demands on fracturing fluids. In general, they should be able to effectively transport the propping agent to the fractures, have a certain viscosity and density, minimize friction losses, not lead to corrosion of equipment, and be cost-effective and environmentally acceptable. Depending on the specific conditions, different types of fracturing fluids are used, primarily water-based fluids, as well as oil-based fluids or foam fluids. To achieve the required properties of carrier fluids, a series of chemical additives are added to them, such as friction reducers, additives to prevent harmful deposits and acid corrosion, fluid loss additives, scale inhibitors, surfactants, etc. Today, technologies for production and application of fracturing fluids represent an important engineering field based on the latest scientific achievements and practical experience. The proposed bulletin presents a collection of recent patents on this topic and provides a brief analysis of the main statistical indicators of patent activity.
The present bulletin reviews patents granted by patent offices around the globe in 2016-2018 in the field related to working fluids as fracturing materials in oil and gas production from low permeability plays. General research methodology can be found on the Advanced Energy Technologies website. 1327 patent documents from 19 patent offices around the world are represented in the bulletin. In total, 341 applicants from 19 countries and 812 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 the USA.
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 vizualized, 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 USA and China prevail among the patenting leaders in the examined period of time. These leaders include: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. (US), Baker Hughes Incorporated (US), PetroChina Company Limited (CN), Sinopec China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (CN), Rhodia Operations S.A.S. (FR), Saudi Arabian Oil Company (SA), Schlumberger Technology B.V. (NL), Schlumberger Technology Corporation (US), Multi-chem group LLC (US), and CNPC CCDC Chuanqing Drilling Engineering Company Limited (CN).
The bulletin contains lists of the top 10 prominent documents having the highest bibliographical rating, the most extensive coverage of IPC sections, the shortest patent pending time.
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 granted patents.
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 unconventional oil and gas production technologies.
