Drilling Digital Twin Patent Snapshot 2026
The drilling digital twin patent space is highly concentrated, with Halliburton and the Schlumberger family of entities collectively controlling the dominant share of the top filers’ activity. The field reached a multi-year peak around 2021 and has since plateaued, with the most recent filing periods remaining under-represented due to publication lag.
Halliburton and Schlumberger entities lead a tightly held field
Halliburton Energy Services and Schlumberger Tech Corp each rank at the top of the applicant list, with the top five filers accounting for 81% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined patent records — a concentration level that signals limited room for new entrants in core drilling automation and control sub-classes.
The tier gap between the top two players and the rest of the field is pronounced. Schlumberger’s subsidiary entities — Services Petroliers Schlumberger, GeoQuest Systems, Schlumberger Canada, and Schlumberger Technology BV — together amplify the Schlumberger group’s effective footprint well beyond any single entity’s ranking.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Halliburton Energy Services Inc | 16 | |
| 2 | Schlumberger Tech Corp | 16 | |
| 3 | Services Petroliers Schlumberger SA | 9 | |
| 4 | GeoQuest Systems BV | 5 | |
| 5 | Schlumberger Canada Ltd | 5 | |
| 6 | Schlumberger Technology BV | 5 | |
| 7 | BJ Services Co | 3 | |
| 8 | Baker Hughes Co | 3 | |
| 9 | Beijing Zhongdida Engineering Survey and Design Research Institute Co Ltd | 1 |
The leadership positions of Halliburton and the Schlumberger group imply that the most defensible IP in wellbore trajectory control, downhole parameter inference, and real-time adaptive drilling is already claimed. New entrants or challengers need to differentiate on application layer software, AI integration, or peripheral sub-systems to avoid the incumbents’ core claims.
Filing counts for 2024–2026 are under-represented due to typical patent publication lag of 18–24 months; apparent softness in those years should not be interpreted as a structural decline. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Activity peaked in 2021; E21B dominates the technology mix
Two charts frame the field’s temporal and technical shape: annual filing volume from 2017 to 2026, and the IPC class breakdown of the patent corpus. Together they reveal a field that matured around a visible technical category with selective expansion into AI and data-processing sub-classes.
Annual filing trend
Filings were negligible before 2019, accelerated sharply to a peak in 2021, then moderated to a lower but sustained plateau through 2023. The 2024–2026 bars are artificially low due to publication lag and should not be read as a continuation of the post-peak decline.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
E21B (Earth and rock drilling — wells) is overwhelmingly visible, reflecting that the core digital twin work is tightly coupled to downhole hardware and control systems. G01V (geophysics and gravity surveying), G06N (AI-based computing), and G06F (digital data processing) are secondary branches, indicating selective integration of sensing and machine-learning layers. B08B (general cleaning) appears as an adjacent cluster concentrated in BJ Services filings.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Downhole tool diagnostics
A method for performing diagnostics of a downhole tool during a downhole operation includes generating a System of System (SoS) dataset in a time domain and a depth domain for the downhole tool, wherein the SoS dataset comprises operational mode data associated with different operational modes of the downhole tool and tool mode data associated with… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joint inversion of downhole tool measurements | 53 |
| 2 | Approaches to directional drilling | 22 |
| 3 | Elastic pipe control with managed pressure drilling | 20 |
| 4 | Inferring wellsite operations from power consumpti… | 16 |
| 5 | Adaptive downhole acquisition system | 12 |
| 6 | Approaches to directional drilling | 9 |
| 7 | Approaches to directional drilling | 9 |
| 8 | Parameter inference, depth estimation, and anomaly… | 8 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Halliburton Energy Services
Halliburton leads with 16 patent records and concentrates its filings in E21B44 (automated drilling control), E21B7 (directional drilling methods), and E21B47 (downhole measurement), mirroring the core digital twin control loop. Momentum data for the recent window is not separately broken out in the evidence for Halliburton, but the applicantTech profile confirms sustained breadth across three primary E21B sub-classes, signaling a mature, well-distributed portfolio rather than a late-stage push.
patent records: 16Schlumberger Tech Corp
Schlumberger Tech Corp is co-ranked at 16 patent records and shows a ‘new entrant’ trend in the recent filing window — a signal that likely reflects the group’s multi-entity prosecution structure bringing this specific legal entity into recent filings. Its technology focus mirrors Halliburton’s: E21B44 (16 records), E21B47 (12 records), and E21B7 (7 records). When the broader Schlumberger group’s entities are aggregated, the group’s total footprint substantially exceeds Halliburton’s standalone count.
patent records: 16Frequently asked questions
The evidence covers 38 patent families in scope. This is a relatively small, specialist corpus, which makes the high concentration among top filers even more strategically significant.
Halliburton Energy Services and Schlumberger Tech Corp are co-ranked at the top with 16 patent records each. When Schlumberger’s subsidiary entities — Services Petroliers Schlumberger, GeoQuest Systems, Schlumberger Canada, and Schlumberger Technology BV — are included, the Schlumberger group’s combined footprint is substantially larger.
The field is assessed at the Maturity stage. Annual filings have plateaued near their 2021 peak, with the recent-window growth rate slightly negative. This indicates the foundational architecture of drilling digital twins is well-established rather than in active early growth.
The United States is the leading jurisdiction, followed by EPO (Europe), WIPO PCT, the United Kingdom, and Norway. Norway’s presence reflects the strategic importance of North Sea offshore drilling operations. China and Malaysia each have a single record, indicating limited incumbent coverage in Asian markets.
The most-cited work in the evidence relates to joint inversion of downhole tool measurements (53 citations), approaches to directional drilling (22 and 9 citations across multiple records), elastic pipe control with managed pressure drilling (20 citations), and inferring wellsite operations from power consumption (16 citations). These titles point to core digital twin functions: sensor fusion, trajectory control, and operational inference.
Two adjacent branches are most sparse and technically plausible: G06F (electric digital data processing) with 2 records, relevant to data pipeline and simulation orchestration; and G06T (image data processing and generation) with 1 record, relevant to 3D subsurface visualization. Both are under-served relative to the visible E21B positions and may offer lower-friction entry paths for software or visualization specialists.
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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.
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