Fastest
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/cyclic-steam-stimulation-and-steam-flooding-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Thermal Heavy Oil RecoveryCyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding Patents
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees hold 47.9% of the 522 records in scope, and the ten leading assignees hold 62.6% — a field with a dominant core and a long single-filing tail.
- Filings have pulled back sharply. After peaking at 24 filings in 2017, annual activity fell from 5 in 2021 to 0 in 2024, a -100% change over that span.
- Claims cluster on wellbore mechanics. E21B drilling-well claims appear on 95.4% of records, while sensing subclasses like G01V and G01H each sit under 4% — a visibly under-claimed branch.
522
Published Records
48%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-100%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (0) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 522 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
A mature niche with a narrow leadership group
Cyclic steam stimulation and steam flooding form a core method family within thermal heavy-oil recovery, where operators inject steam into a reservoir to lower oil viscosity before production. The 522 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off and cluster heavily around wellbore completion mechanics, with E21B drilling-well claims present on the large majority of filings.
Filing activity is not evenly spread. A small group of assignees accounts for most of the record volume, receiving-office activity is weighted toward the United States and Canada — the two dominant venues for heavy-oil operations — and the annual filing count has fallen sharply from its 2017 peak through the last complete year in the data.
Records by filing year and IPC subclass
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Filing Data
Filing trends and technology composition
The 522 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with publication lag meaning the most recent one to two years are still filling in as filings work through examination and disclosure.
Filings peaked in 2017 and have not returned
Annual filings reached a peak of 24 in 2017. Using the last full three-year span the data supports, filings fell from 5 in 2021 to 0 in 2024, a -100% change — a marked pullback in new filing activity in this specific search string, though 2025 and 2026 figures remain incomplete and should not be read as confirming a continued decline.
Wellbore mechanics dominate the claim space
E21B (earth and rock drilling for wells) appears on 95.4% of the 522 records in scope, far ahead of C09K materials claims at 18.4%. Every other subclass — geophysics, ceramics, vibration and pressure sensing, refining — sits under 4% of records, meaning the field's claim density is heavily concentrated on wellbore and completion mechanics rather than on materials or monitoring.
Shares are the percentage of the 522 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about cyclic steam stimulation and steam flooding and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
The most-cited records anchoring this landscape
Representative Filing
US7347264B2 — Methods and compositions for well completion in steam breakthrough wells
HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES, INC.
Methods of steam flooding for stimulating hydrocarbon production are provided, comprising an ordered sequence: a mutual solvent preflush capable of dissolving oil, an aqueous preflush with a surfactant that oil-wets silica, a curable resin treatment fluid stable above 350°F, and finally driving steam to break through the near-wellbore region.Assigned to Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.; granted 2008-03-25.
View full recordMost-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4598770A | Thermal recovery method for viscous oil | 458 |
| 2 | US4766958A | Method of recovering viscous oil from reservoirs with multiple horizontal zones | 215 |
| 3 | US4434849A | Method and apparatus for recovering high viscosity oils | 185 |
| 4 | US5215146A | Method for reducing startup time during a steam assisted gravity drainage process in parallel horizontal wells | 158 |
| 5 | US6050335A | In-situ production of bitumen | 139 |
| 6 | US5203834A | Foamed gels having selective permeability | 131 |
| 7 | US4265310A | Fracture preheat oil recovery process | 131 |
| 8 | WO1994021889A2 | Improvements in or relating to drilling and to the extraction of fluids | 127 |
| 9 | US5005645A | Method for enhancing heavy oil production using hydraulic fracturing | 126 |
| 10 | US20160281494A1 | Methods, apparatus, and systems for steam flow profiling | 114 |
Citation counts are drawn from the searched corpus and favour older records; treat them as a signal of influence rather than of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →Insights
What the filing data signals
Three patterns stand out once record counts, citation strength and IPC composition are read together: a concentrated leadership group, a stalled filing curve, and a technology mix skewed hard toward wellbore hardware.
Concentration
47.9%
of 522 records held by top 5 assignees
Leadership is narrow, not distributed
The leading assignee alone holds 88 records; the fifth-ranked holds 25 and the tenth-ranked holds 11. That gap between first and fifth place means the practical competitive set for freedom-to-operate work is small even though 100 companies appear somewhere in the ranking.
Ranking basis: 522 records, 100 ranked assignees
Filing momentum
-100%
change, 2021 (5 filings) to 2024 (0 filings)
New filing activity has stalled
The peak year was 2017 at 24 filings; the decline through the last complete year in the data is steep. Publication lag means the very latest years will fill in somewhat, but the multi-year direction through 2024 is unambiguous.
Peak: 2017 (24 filings). Trend through 2024 shown; 2025-26 incomplete
Technology mix
95.4%
of 522 records carry an E21B (drilling-well) class
Wellbore mechanics own the claim space
C09K materials claims follow at 18.4% of records. Every sensing- or measurement-related subclass — G01V, G01H, G01L — sits under 4%, marking those as the thinnest, most contestable parts of the landscape.
Classes overlap; shares are of the 522-record total, not additive
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to cyclic steam stimulation and steam flooding, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The ranked leaders hold most of the volume, but the technology composition points to specific branches — sensing, materials-process boundaries — where filing density is thin enough to leave room for new entrants.
Leader
88
records
The leading assignee sets the baseline
With 88 records, the top-ranked assignee holds more than three times the fifth-ranked entrant's 25 records, making its claim set the first checkpoint for any freedom-to-operate review in this space.
Basis: 522 records in scope
Mid-tier
11
records at 10th place
A steep drop after the top group
By the tenth position in the ranking, record counts have fallen to 11 — well below the top 5's combined 47.9% share of all 522 records — showing how quickly filing density thins out past the leadership tier.
Basis: 100 ranked assignees
Collaboration
10
co-assignee pairs identified
Co-filing is limited and inventor-driven
The strongest co-assignee pairs pair a single leading corporate assignee with individual named inventors rather than with other companies, suggesting joint corporate development is uncommon in this niche.
Strongest pairs recur at 4 shared filings
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Mobil Oil Corporation | 0 | — |
| ConocoPhillips Company | 0 | — |
| OptaSense Holdings Limited | 0 | — |
| Texaco Development Corporation | 0 | — |
| Suncor Energy Inc. | 0 | — |
| Texaco Development Corporation | 0 | — |
| Union Oil Company of California | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The record-level data behind these figures supports closer review at the claim level, particularly around the leading assignee's portfolio and the under-claimed sensing branches.
Review the leading assignee's full claim set
With 88 records concentrated in one assignee, a claim-by-claim review of that portfolio is the fastest way to map freedom-to-operate risk before filing in wellbore completion methods.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest claim language against the sensing white space
G01V, G01H and G01L subclasses each sit under 4% of the 522 records in scope, leaving room to draft claims that pair sensing with steam-cycle control methods.
Draft and check claims in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on this landscape
Filing activity in this dataset is concentrated at the top: the five leading assignees together account for 47.9% of the 522 records in scope, and the ten leading assignees account for 62.6%. The single leading assignee holds 88 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked entrant at 25 and the tenth-ranked entrant at 11. Beyond the ranked leaders there is a long tail of entities with only one or two filings each, which is typical of a mature oilfield-services niche rather than an emerging one.
Filings peaked at 24 in 2017 and have declined since. Looking at the last span the data can support as complete, annual filings dropped from 5 in 2021 to 0 in 2024, a -100% change. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures in the underlying data are still incomplete and should not be read as proof the field has gone fully dormant, but the multi-year trend through 2024 is a real pullback in new filing activity captured by this specific search.
Wellbore and completion mechanics dominate: the E21B subclass (earth and rock drilling for wells) appears on 95.4% of the 522 records in scope. Materials claims under C09K follow at 18.4%. Sensing- and measurement-related subclasses — geophysics, vibration, pressure — each account for under 4% of records, indicating that most claim effort goes into wellbore hardware and injection sequencing rather than into monitoring or materials science.
US7347264B2, assigned to Halliburton Energy Services, claims a specific sequenced method for steam breakthrough wells: a mutual-solvent preflush, an aqueous surfactant preflush, and a curable resin treatment stable above 350°F, followed by driving steam to break through the near-wellbore region. It blocks that particular ordered combination of steps, not steam flooding or resin consolidation individually. A process that reorders or substitutes one of the three stages sits outside its narrowest claim reading, though a full freedom-to-operate check should confirm this against the granted claim language.
The thinnest subclasses relative to the 522-record total are G01V (geophysics, 3.8%), G01H (vibration and sound, 1.9%), G01L (pressure, 1.5%) and C10G (hydrocarbon refining integration, 1.1%). These figures suggest real-time sensing tied to steam-cycle events such as breakthrough or casing thermal cycling is under-claimed relative to how central those events are to the process, making it a plausible area for new filings that combine a sensor with a control-loop method step.
Receiving-office data in this dataset shows the United States and Canada as the two largest venues, with the World Intellectual Property Organization (PCT route), Europe (EPO) and Australia also represented, and a smaller volume through India. The US-Canada weighting is consistent with the geography of thermal heavy-oil operations, which concentrate in North American oil sands and heavy-oil basins.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole cyclic steam stimulation and steam flooding corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company's registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.