Digital Well Surveillance Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Digital Well and Production Surveillance Patents: Who Leads and Where Filings Are Heading
Top-heavy field. the top 5 assignees hold 54.0% of all 250 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 75.6% — leaving a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. Filings peaked at 24 in 2017, then cooled before climbing again from 4 in 2021 to 17 in 2024 — a +325% increase over that span. Treat 2025 and 2026 as undercounted rather than declining: publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent two years are still filling in.
- 1LANDMARK GRAPHICS CORP40
- 2SAUDI ARABIAN OIL CO38
- 3EXXONMOBIL UPSTREAM RESEARCH COMPANY(US)25
- 4SOLUTION SEEKER17
- 5CONOCOPHILLIPS CO15
See the full digital well and production surveillance analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this patent landscape
Who holds the most patents in virtual flow metering and production surveillance?
One assignee leads the ranking with 40 of the 250 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 15 and tenth place at 9. The top 5 assignees together account for 54.0% of all 250 records, and the top 10 account for 75.6%, so filing activity is concentrated among a small group even though 60 companies appear in the ranking overall. That leaves the remaining companies holding small, single-digit positions rather than competing on equal footing with the leaders.
Is patent filing in this space growing or slowing down?
Filings grew sharply from 4 in 2021 to 17 in 2024, a +325% increase, after an earlier peak of 24 in 2017 and a quieter middle period. The apparent decline shown for 2025 and 2026 is not a real slowdown — publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, so those years are still incomplete in any patent database. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as a reliable data point.
What technologies dominate digital well surveillance patents?
E21B, the classification for earth and rock drilling and well operations, covers 54.8% of the 250 records, confirming that most inventions are still anchored to physical well hardware and operations. Software and analytics classes are substantial but secondary: G06F data processing appears in 21.6% of records, G01F flow measurement in 17.2%, and G06N AI-model computing in 10.4%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read as overlapping technology layers, not a single pie chart.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Digital Well and Production Surveillance covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.