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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/drilling-and-well-engineering-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Oil, Gas, Coal & RefiningDrilling and well engineering patents: who files, where activity concentrates, and where it has cooled
- 28.8% of all 23,561 records sit with just five assignees, yet the ranked list runs to 100 companies with a long tail below them.
- E21B earth and rock drilling covers 64.3% of records while adjacent classes like G06F data processing (2.6%) and G06Q business methods (1.1%) remain thin by comparison.
- Filing fell 35% from 2021 (532) to 2024 (346) the last year with a complete publication window, after a 2020 peak of 655.
23.6K
Published Records
29%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-35%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (532 records) with 2024 (346) — 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 23,561 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape maps 23,561 published patent families filed against a search built around well drilling, wellbore engineering, and oil and gas drilling operations, cross-referenced against well pressure, formation fluid, pipeline flow, corrosion rate, reservoir fluid, and drilling-operation terms. The coverage window runs from 2015 through the 2026-08-31 data cut-off, with the most recent one to two years still under-counted because publication typically lags filing by about eighteen months. Family-level counting is used throughout so continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates do not inflate any single applicant's position.
The filing base is dominated by oilfield services and national oil companies rather than newer entrants, and the technology composition skews heavily toward core mechanical drilling claims rather than the data or business-process layers built around them.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Drilling & Well Engineering Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 23,561-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Annual filings rose from 525 in 2017 to a peak of 655 in 2020, then declined to 346 by 2024 — a 35% drop across the 2021-to-2024 span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete due to publication lag and should not be read as a continuing decline.
IPC subclass distribution
E21B (earth and rock drilling for wells) accounts for 64.3% of the 23,561 records in scope, far ahead of C09K materials (11.5%) and G01V geophysics (8.6%). Digital and commercial layers — G06F data processing and G06Q business methods — sit at 2.6% and 1.1% respectively, well below the mechanical core. Records can carry more than one IPC class, so these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 23,561 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 Drilling & Well Engineering Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Most-cited records in the corpus
Representative recent filing
Methods and systems for determining well shut-in pressures of oil and gas well drilling
SOUTHWEST PETROLEUM UNIVERSITY
The filing (US20250101865A1, Southwest Petroleum University, 2025-03-27) describes obtaining a basic parameter of a target well — wellbore structure, drilling fluid performance, or casing string data — and applying a pressure calculation model to determine a maximum well shut-in pressure during drilling.Shut-in pressure determination sits inside the E21B core rather than in an adjacent digital layer, reinforcing how concentrated recent filing remains around drilling mechanics.
Highest-citation patents in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6092610A | Actively controlled rotary steerable system and method for drilling wells | 738 |
| 2 | US4991614A | Method and a plant for transport of hydrocarbons over a long distance from an offshore source of hydrocarbons | 555 |
| 3 | US6980940B1 | Intergrated reservoir optimization | 500 |
| 4 | US4741401A | Method for treating subterranean formations | 445 |
| 5 | US20090090555A1 | Automated directional drilling apparatus and methods | 444 |
| 6 | US5064006A | Downhole combination tool | 429 |
| 7 | US4933640A | Apparatus for locating an elongated conductive body by electromagnetic measurement while drilling | 408 |
| 8 | US4578675A | Apparatus and method for logging wells while drilling | 394 |
| 9 | US4765401A | Apparatus for handling well pipe | 393 |
| 10 | US5485089A | Method and apparatus for measuring distance and direction by movable magnetic field source | 391 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations within the searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence rather than current relevance.
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 Drilling & Well Engineering Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once the records are grouped by assignee, class and year.
Concentration
28.8% / 36.7%
share of 23,561 records held by top 5 / top 10 assignees
The top of the field is dense, the rest is a long tail
The five leading assignees hold 28.8% of all 23,561 records, and the top ten hold 36.7%. Beyond that the ranked list runs to 100 companies, most holding single-digit shares — a pattern typical of an established oilfield-services field rather than an emerging one.
Ranked assignee list, 100 companies
Technology mix
64.3% in E21B
share of records classified under earth and rock drilling
Mechanical drilling claims dominate the class distribution
E21B alone covers 64.3% of the 23,561 records in scope. Materials (C09K, 11.5%) and geophysics (G01V, 8.6%) trail well behind, and data-processing and commercial classes are thinner still, suggesting most claim activity is still anchored to physical drilling mechanics.
IPC subclass breakdown
Momentum
-35% (2021→2024)
filing change across the last complete years
Recent filing has pulled back from its 2020 peak
Annual filings peaked at 655 in 2020 and fell to 346 by 2024, a 35% decline over that span. Several of the largest historical filers also show sharp year-on-year momentum drops in the latest tracked year, though that year is still filling in.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
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Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to drilling & well engineering patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Drilling & Well Engineering Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. 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 thinning
Filing activity is led by oilfield-services majors and national oil companies, with several of the largest historical filers now showing reduced output in the latest tracked year.
Leader
3,246 records
leading assignee's family count
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 3,246 records, more than five times the fifth-place figure of 567 and over twelve times the tenth-place figure of 265 — a steep drop-off after the leader rather than a gradual one.
Assignee ranking, 100 companies
Momentum reversal
-85% to -67% YoY
latest-year change among several top historical filers
The largest historical filers have slowed sharply
Several of the assignees with the deepest filing histories show latest-year counts in the single digits with year-on-year declines between roughly 67% and 100%. This reflects both a genuine pullback and the publication lag that always understates the newest year.
Recent-year momentum by assignee
Corporate structure
10 co-assignee pairs
linked filing entities identified in the data
Filing is split across related corporate entities
The strongest co-assignee links connect a small number of related subsidiaries of the same corporate groups, filing counts of 248, 198 and 166 shared records respectively — a reminder to check corporate family trees before reading any single assignee name as the whole picture.
Co-assignee pairs, top 3 by shared record count
Latest-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) | 3 | -85% |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | 3 | -84% |
| Schlumberger | 1 | -75% |
| Schlumberger Canada Limited | 1 | -75% |
| Schlumberger Technology B.V. | 1 | -67% |
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. (US) | 0 | -100% |
| Baker Hughes Holdings LLC | 0 | — |
| M-I LLC | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Drilling & Well Engineering Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a mature, concentrated core and a thinner set of adjacent branches that have not been claimed as heavily.
Map freedom-to-operate around the E21B core
With 64.3% of records sitting in earth and rock drilling classifications, any new filing in that space needs a close read of the leading assignees' claim scope before committing to a drafting direction.
Explore E21B claim scope in EurekaWatch the momentum reversal among top filers
Several of the deepest-filing assignees show sharp latest-year declines; tracking whether that continues once publication lag clears will matter for competitive positioning.
Track assignee momentum in EurekaTest claims in the under-claimed adjacent branches
Data-processing and business-method classes remain thin relative to the mechanical core, which may leave room for claims tying drilling sensor data to automated control or analytics layers.
Search white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Drilling & Well Engineering Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked list with 3,246 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 567 and tenth place at 265. The top five assignees combined hold 28.8% of the 23,561 records in scope, and the top ten hold 36.7%, so the field has a dense top tier followed by a long tail across the remaining 100 ranked companies. Several of the largest historical filers are oilfield-services groups with multiple related filing entities, so checking corporate family trees matters when comparing raw counts.
Filing rose to a peak of 655 records in 2020, then declined to 346 by 2024, a 35% drop across that three-year span. The years after 2024 show lower counts still, but that reflects publication lag — filings typically take about eighteen months to appear in the record — rather than a confirmed continued decline. Readers should treat 2024 as the most recent complete year for trend purposes.
Earth and rock drilling, IPC class E21B, covers 64.3% of the 23,561 records in scope, making it by far the dominant classification. Materials for miscellaneous applications (C09K, 11.5%) and geophysics and gravity surveying (G01V, 8.6%) trail well behind. Digital and commercial layers such as data processing and business-method classes are comparatively thin, which is a useful signal for where claim space is less crowded.
The evidence points to under-claimed territory outside the mechanical E21B core, particularly where drilling sensor data connects to automated control, real-time pressure modelling, or corrosion-rate sensing integration. These branches sit adjacent to classes like G06F and G01N that carry much lower record shares than the dominant drilling class. A first claim there would likely combine a specific sensing or data input with a defined control or modelling output, rather than claiming the drilling mechanism itself.
US20250101865A1, filed by Southwest Petroleum University and published 2025-03-27, covers methods for determining maximum well shut-in pressure during drilling using a pressure calculation model applied to wellbore structure, drilling fluid performance, or casing string parameters. It is a recent, narrowly scoped filing rather than a broad platform claim, so it constrains specific pressure-calculation approaches more than it forecloses the wider shut-in pressure monitoring space. Anyone working on adjacent pressure-modelling methods should check its specific model inputs rather than assume it blocks the whole area.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Drilling & Well Engineering Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.