EOR Environmental Durability Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- Filing already peaked and has not recovered. 2017 was the high point at 19 records; by the 2022 midpoint filings had fallen to 7, and the line has stayed flat-to-declining since.
- Claim space is concentrated in one IPC subclass. 82 of 84 records sit in C09K (materials for misc. applications), with E21B (well drilling) a distant second at 39 — most of this field is chemistry, not hardware.
- No assignee is currently active. Every tracked assignee, including the two leading Saudi filers who co-file together, shows zero filings in the latest year — momentum has stalled across the board, not just at the margins.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (5) — 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 84 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families at the intersection of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and environmental durability — specifically claims addressing chemical or thermal stability of EOR fluids under high-temperature, high-salinity reservoir conditions. The search combines EOR terminology with stability-specific claim language and IPC codes covering EOR-specific chemical agents (C09K8/588, C09K8/584) and well treatment methods (E21B43/16).
Coverage runs from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years of the trend line will understate true filing activity and should be read as provisional rather than as a real decline on top of the decline already visible.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 84 records: when they were filed, and which parts of the classification system they occupy.
A peak that has not been retested
Filings rose to 19 in 2017, then eased through the following years to 7 at the 2022 midpoint and lower still since. There is no second wave visible in the record — this reads as a field that had one active filing period rather than a rising technology.
Chemistry dominates, hardware trails
C09K (materials for miscellaneous applications, including EOR chemical formulations) covers all but two of the 84 records. E21B (well drilling and treatment) appears in under half. Polymer chemistry (C08F) and small-molecule chemistry (C07C) show up as secondary clusters; fermentation-derived agents, electroplating and lubricant-related claims are each represented by only one or two records apiece.
Shares are the percentage of the 84 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 Environmental Durability with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about enhanced oil recovery environmental durability and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this space
WO2023107044A3 — Synthesis of poly(methyl methacrylate) solution for enhanced oil recovery
The present invention relates to the production of a solution for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications. With the invention, it is possible to synthesize a solution without using solid (powder) polymer intermediates. The conductive nanoparticles that can be added to the solution, as well as the method for adding them, are also described. With the solution obtained according to the invention, it is possible to enhance the oil production factor in oil reservoirs that cannot be taken out from underground with primary and secondary oil recovery methods.Filed by Istanbul Teknik Universitesi — a university-originated filing in a field otherwise dominated by national oil companies and oilfield service majors.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20110059873A1 | Process of using hard brine at high alkalinity for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications | 87 |
| 2 | US4563290A | Water-soluble copolymers useful for enhanced oil recovery | 38 |
| 3 | US20180346798A1 | Nanosurfactants for improved and enhanced oil recovery applications | 27 |
| 4 | US8188012B2 | Process of using hard brine at high alkalinity for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications | 27 |
| 5 | US20150090456A1 | Fluorescent nano-sensors for oil and gas reservoir characterization | 15 |
| 6 | WO2011031920A2 | Process of using hard brine at high alkalinity for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications | 15 |
| 7 | US20180112122A1 | Compositions for enhanced oil recovery | 13 |
| 8 | US20170198201A1 | Stabilization of Petroleum Surfactants For Enhancing Oil Recovery | 11 |
| 9 | US11168244B2 | Compositions for enhanced oil recovery | 10 |
| 10 | US20180216449A1 | Blowdown Pressure Maintenance With Foam | 9 |
Citation counts are pulled from within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; treat them as evidence of influence on later filers, not as a signal of current commercial 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 say
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting new claims or scoping a freedom-to-operate review in this space.
The field peaked once and did not repeat
Filing rose to 19 records in 2017 and fell through the 2022 midpoint (7) to zero in the most recent tracked year across every assignee. Even allowing for an 18-month publication lag, this is a longer decline than a lag alone would produce.
Almost the entire field is a chemistry claim
C09K materials claims cover nearly every record; E21B well-treatment method claims appear in under half. A freedom-to-operate search that stops at drilling-method classifications will miss most of the relevant prior art.
One filer pair dominates joint filings
Only five co-assignee pairs exist across the dataset; the strongest, between two Saudi national-oil-company entities, has six joint records — several times the next-closest pairs, which sit at two each.
Influence sits with two related early filings
The two most-cited records in the corpus both describe hard-brine, high-alkalinity EOR processes and share an assignee lineage — later filers appear to be building on the same chemistry rather than displacing it.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to enhanced oil recovery environmental durability, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds this ground — and who has stopped filing
The assignee list is short and its recent activity is uniformly quiet. That combination matters more here than the raw ranking does.
Saudi entities file jointly and lead the ranking
The strongest co-assignee relationship in the dataset links two Saudi national-oil-company entities, filing together six times — well ahead of any other pairing. Their combined position anchors the top of the assignee ranking even with zero filings in the latest year.
A Texas university system files with individual named inventors
Two separate co-assignee pairs link a university system to individually named inventors, each appearing twice. This pattern — institution plus named academic co-inventor — is typical of research-stage EOR chemistry rather than field-deployed formulations.
Every tracked assignee has gone quiet
Service and energy majors named in the momentum data — spanning water treatment, integrated energy and national-oil-company filers — all show zero filings in the most recent year. This is a dormant leaderboard, not an actively contested one.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | — |
| Ecolab USA Inc. | 0 | — |
| Board of Regents, The University of Texas System | 0 | — |
| TotalEnergies SE | 0 | — |
| Saudi Aramco Services Company | 0 | — |
| MOL MAGYAR OLAJ ES GAZIPARI NYILVANOSAN MUKODO RESZVENYTARSASAG | 0 | — |
| Sanyo Chemical Industries, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| INTERENERGY ARGENTINA SA | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a narrow, chemistry-heavy field with stalled recent filing — useful context, but it raises questions a static table can't answer.
Check freedom-to-operate against the C09K cluster
With 82 of 84 records classified there, any new stability-additive formulation should be screened against this cluster specifically, not just against E21B drilling-method prior art.
Run a claim search in EurekaWatch for a filing restart, not just a slowdown
Zero recent-year activity across every tracked assignee could mean the technology has plateaued, or that filings are sitting in the 18-month publication lag. Monitoring the next filing wave will tell you which.
Set up monitoring in EurekaLook past the top-cited pair
The two highest-cited records share lineage and chemistry. Newer, less-cited filings in nanosurfactants or nanoparticle-doped polymers may be more relevant to where the field is actually heading.
Explore related filings in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
In this context it refers to chemical and thermal stability claims — how well an EOR fluid, polymer or surfactant retains its performance under high-temperature, high-salinity reservoir conditions rather than degrading, precipitating or losing viscosity. It is distinct from broader environmental-impact claims such as biodegradability or spill remediation. Most records in this dataset frame durability as a materials-chemistry problem, which is why the classification concentrates so heavily in C09K rather than in mechanical or drilling-method codes.
The dataset shows filings rising to 19 in 2017, then easing to 7 by 2022 and lower still afterward, with the most recent year showing zero across every tracked assignee. Some of that recent-year drop is a publication-lag artifact, since filings typically take about 18 months to appear in the record. But the decline starts well before the lag window, which suggests genuine reduced investment in this specific niche rather than a purely reporting effect.
The assignee ranking is led by a co-filing relationship between two Saudi national-oil-company entities, who jointly hold the strongest co-assignee pairing in the dataset at six shared records. A university system also appears repeatedly, typically paired with named academic co-inventors rather than filing solo. None of the tracked assignees, however, show any filings in the most recent tracked year, so leadership here reflects historical position rather than current activity.
Yes, in the branches adjacent to the dense C09K stability cluster. Sub-areas such as fluorescent nano-sensor reservoir characterization, fermentation-derived stabilizing agents and conductive nanoparticle-doped polymer solutions appear only once or twice in this 84-record dataset, compared with dozens of records in core hard-brine and polymer-stability chemistry. That thinness is either genuine white space or a sign the sub-area hasn't yet been claimed under these specific IPC codes — worth a targeted search before assuming either.
Treat high citation counts as a sign of influence within this searched corpus, not as a measure of current commercial importance. The most-cited record here, at 87 citations, describes a hard-brine high-alkalinity process filed years before the dataset's newer nanosurfactant and nanoparticle filings, which simply haven't had time to accumulate citations yet. For a live freedom-to-operate view, pair the citation ranking with the filing-date and IPC data rather than reading it on its own.
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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.