EOR Advanced Materials Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Filing activity peaked in 2020 at 27 records and has declined through the midpoint year of 2022, with the most recent full year showing no fresh filings from the leading assignees — a signal the field has cooled rather than accelerated.
- Two Chevron entities co-file more than any other pair 13 shared families between Chevron Oronite Company LLC and Chevron U.S.A. Inc., pointing to a tight internal filing structure rather than open collaboration across the sector.
- Claim density sits almost entirely in one IPC subclass 151 of 152 records sit in C09K, with E21B (wells) a distant second — most of the differentiated technical territory is drilling-adjacent formulation work, not the well-engineering side.
Filing growth compares 2021 (12 records) with 2024 (12) — 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 152 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing EOR surfactants, EOR polymers, nanofluids and chemical formulations under IPC classes C09K8/584, C09K8/588 and C09K8/60, filed between 2015 and mid-2026. It captures 152 published records and an equal number of families, concentrated overwhelmingly in materials-for-oilfield-use claims rather than mechanical or downhole-equipment claims.
Filing activity is not evenly spread: it rose to a 2020 peak, then slid back toward the level seen earlier in the period. Because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, the last one to two years in any chart will understate true filing activity — treat the tail as provisional, not as a real decline until later data cuts confirm it.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 152 families: how filing activity has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
A 2020 peak followed by a pullback
From 3 filings in 2017, activity built to 27 in 2020 before easing to 6 at the 2022 midpoint. Read the final one to two years as incomplete rather than as a genuine tail-off, given publication lag.
Almost everything sits in C09K
151 of 152 records classify under C09K (materials for miscellaneous applications), with E21B (wells) appearing in 87 records as a secondary classification — most inventive activity is chemistry, applied to a well context, not well-hardware engineering. C07C and C08F appear in smaller but non-trivial numbers, marking the acyclic-compound and addition-polymer chemistry underneath many surfactant and polymer formulations.
Shares are the percentage of the 152 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Enhanced Oil Recovery Advanced Materials with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about enhanced oil recovery advanced materials and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe patents other filings build on
US7332460B2 — Alkylxylene sulfonates for enhanced oil recovery processes
The alkylxylene moiety in the alkylxylene sulfonate contains a high percentage of the 4-alkyl-1,2-dimethyl benzene isomer and a high percentage of alkyl group attachment to the xylene ring at positions higher than the 2-position on the alkyl carbon chain. The method employs the sulfonate in aqueous media for enhancing oil recovery from a subterranean reservoir, optionally with co-surfactants.Filed by Chevron Oronite Company LLC; granted 2008-02-19.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US8211837B2 | Method of manufacture and use of large hydrophobe ether sulfate surfactants in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) ap… | 139 |
| 2 | US20110071057A1 | Method of manufacture and use of large hydrophobe ether sulfate surfactants in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) ap… | 77 |
| 3 | WO2005018300A2 | Alkylxylene sulfonates for enhanced oil recovery processes | 75 |
| 4 | US20090111717A1 | Enhanced oil recovery surfactant formulation and method of making the same | 56 |
| 5 | US20080113884A1 | Alkylxylene sulfonates for enhanced oil recovery processes | 53 |
| 6 | US20190016943A1 | Surfactant for enhanced oil recovery | 40 |
| 7 | US20200181478A1 | Modified mos2 NANO material, and preparation method and use thereof | 30 |
| 8 | US20140096967A1 | Salt-tolerant anionic surfactant compositions for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications | 30 |
| 9 | US20150075798A1 | Hydrocarbon recovery dispersions | 29 |
| 10 | US20130190543A1 | Method and composition for enhanced oil recovery | 26 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings — read them as a map of foundational claims, not current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Four read-outs from the trend, classification and citation data, aimed at where a new filing would land and who would contest it.
The wave has passed, at least on paper
Filing activity rose sharply into 2020 and then declined into the 2022 midpoint, with the most recent full year showing no activity from any of the leading assignees. Publication lag means the true 2024-2026 picture is still forming, but the shape so far is a bulge, not a ramp.
One subclass carries almost all the claim weight
C09K (materials for miscellaneous applications) appears in all but one record. E21B, the wells classification, co-occurs in 87 records but rarely stands alone — most invention here is formulation chemistry applied to a wellbore context.
Co-filing is internal, not collaborative
Of 10 co-assignee pairs identified, the strongest links sit inside single corporate families — Chevron's two entities, and Saudi Aramco with Aramco Services. Cross-company joint filings are rare in this space.
The US remains the primary filing venue
United States filings (63) outnumber the next-largest venues — WIPO/PCT (19) and Europe (18) — by a wide margin, with India and Canada also represented. A filing strategy built only around US protection would still miss meaningful secondary-market coverage.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to enhanced oil recovery advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignees and where their activity has gone quiet
Filing leadership here is old-guard and, on the latest full year, largely dormant — a pattern worth checking before assuming any one player is still actively building this portfolio.
Chevron Oronite + Chevron U.S.A.
The strongest co-assignee link in the dataset, consistent with a single corporate filing programme split across two Chevron entities rather than external collaboration.
Saudi Aramco + Aramco Services
The second identifiable internal pairing, reflecting Saudi Aramco's practice of filing through both its parent and services entities.
University of Texas System
Appears among the recent-momentum list despite no activity in the most recent full year, indicating earlier-period filings rather than a live programme.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Chevron Oronite Company LLC | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | -100% |
| Chevron U.S.A. Inc. | 0 | — |
| Sasol Chemicals (Pty) Ltd | 0 | — |
| Board of Regents, The University of Texas System | 0 | — |
| Aramco Services Company | 0 | -100% |
| SA TEXACO BELGIUM NV | 0 | — |
| Clariant International Ltd | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature, concentrated claim space with a cooling filing rate. Two directions follow from that.
Check the white space before filing
Nanofluid and bio-based polymer branches carry far fewer records than core sulfonate surfactant claims. Before drafting, run a focused search across those adjacent IPC subclasses to confirm the gap is real and not an artefact of this search string.
Explore white space in EurekaWatch for renewed activity from dormant leaders
Several of the highest-filing assignees show zero activity in the latest full year. A renewed filing from any of them, even a single family, would be a meaningful signal given how quiet the leaderboard has gone.
Track assignee activity in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
Chevron's two filing entities, Chevron Oronite Company LLC and Chevron U.S.A. Inc., show the strongest co-filing relationship in this dataset with 13 shared families, and Chevron-originated sulfonate surfactant patents also rank among the most-cited records in the corpus. Saudi Aramco, filing through its parent and Aramco Services entities, is the other clearly organised filer. Beyond these two groups, filing is dispersed across a long tail of single or few-filing entities, so influence is concentrated even though headline filer counts might suggest otherwise.
Based on this dataset, filing activity peaked in 2020 at 27 records and had declined to 6 by the 2022 midpoint, with no filings recorded from the leading assignees in the most recent full year. Because patent publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years likely understate true activity, but the overall shape through the peak is a rise-and-fall rather than sustained growth. Anyone using this as a market signal should treat the most recent years as provisional.
US7332460B2, assigned to Chevron Oronite Company LLC, claims alkylxylene sulfonate compositions with a specific isomer profile — a high percentage of the 4-alkyl-1,2-dimethyl benzene isomer and particular alkyl attachment positions on the xylene ring — used in aqueous EOR formulations, optionally with co-surfactants. It blocks direct use of that isomer distribution in similar aqueous flooding methods, but does not extend to surfactant chemistries outside the alkylxylene sulfonate family, such as nanofluid-based or bio-derived alternatives. A freedom-to-operate check should focus narrowly on isomer ratio and attachment-position claims rather than treating it as a blanket surfactant patent.
The IPC composition shows 151 of 152 records sitting in C09K, with only small counts in B82Y (nanotechnology, 4 records), A61K (medicinal preparations, 4 records) and C01B (inorganic compounds, 3 records). That imbalance suggests nanofluid-stabilised surfactant systems and bio-based or inorganic-additive recovery chemistries are thin relative to conventional sulfonate and polymer claims. Any white-space claim should still be validated against a broader search string, since this corpus is filtered to a specific set of IPC codes and keywords.
The United States leads as a receiving office with 63 filings, followed by WIPO/PCT filings (19) and the European Patent Office (18). India (16) and Canada (11) follow, with Malaysia appearing at a smaller scale (5). This spread indicates the US is the primary venue but that meaningful protection is also being sought through PCT and in Europe, so a US-only filing or clearance strategy would miss a substantial share of the recorded activity.
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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.