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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/flow-assurance-and-hydrate-management-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Oil & Gas UpstreamFlow assurance and hydrate management patents: who holds the ground and where filing has stalled
- 40.5% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 70 of 173 records in scope — well over a third of the field sits with a handful of operators and service majors.
- Filing has cooled since 2020. Activity peaked at 10 records in 2020; the 2022 midpoint sits at just 4, and every tracked leader shows zero filings in the latest year.
- Drilling-adjacent claims dominate. E21B (earth & rock drilling) touches 60.1% of the 173 records, dwarfing measurement, materials and pipeline-transport classes.
173
Published Records
40%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-14%
3-Yr Growth (lag-adjusted)
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
Flow assurance and hydrate management spans the methods operators use to keep hydrocarbons moving through subsea and onshore pipelines without solids — gas hydrates, wax, or asphaltenes — blocking the line. The dataset behind this page captures 173 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine flow-assurance framing with concrete technical claims: thermodynamic or kinetic inhibitor chemistry, pipeline insulation and heating, restart procedures after shut-in, and pigging strategy.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent year in the trend is always an undercount — the 2026 figure of 0 reflects that lag as much as any real slowdown, but the multi-year decline into 2022 is a genuine signal.
Filing activity, 2017–2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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 173 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
A field that peaked in 2020 and has not recovered
Filings ran at 9 in 2017, rose to a peak of 10 in 2020, then fell to 4 by the 2022 midpoint. Every major tracked assignee shows zero filings in the latest year, consistent with a field where the core inhibitor and monitoring chemistry claims were staked out earlier in the window.
Drilling and monitoring outweigh chemistry
E21B (earth & rock drilling) appears in 60.1% of the 173 records, far ahead of G01N material analysis and testing (17.3%), F16L pipe fittings (11.6%) and G01F flow measurement (11.6%). C09K materials claims — the inhibitor chemistry itself — sit at 10.4%, smaller than the drilling and monitoring classes that surround them.
Shares are the percentage of the 173 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 Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management with Eureka
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The most-cited prior art in this space
Representative recent filing
US12650075B2 — System for monitoring real-time flow assurance occurrences
PETRÓLEO BRASILEIRO S.A. - PETROBRAS
Filed by Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras and granted in 2026, this system integrates multiphase-flow and thermodynamic simulation outputs with live production data to monitor hydrate, paraffin and emulsion formation in subsea lines in real time, issuing control-room alerts before a shutdown occurs.Abstract condensed from the original filing.
Highest-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20080163692A1 | System and method for using one or more thermal sensor probes for flow analysis, flow assurance and pipe cond… | 159 |
| 2 | US20080163700A1 | Sensor system for pipe and flow condition monitoring of a pipeline configured for flowing hydrocarbon mixtures | 151 |
| 3 | US20030056954A1 | Methods and apparatus for a subsea tie back | 138 |
| 4 | US6772840B2 | Methods and apparatus for a subsea tie back | 110 |
| 5 | US20120245058A1 | Graphene-Containing Fluids for Oil and Gas Exploration and Production | 90 |
| 6 | US20120085544A1 | Marine subsea free-standing riser systems and methods | 65 |
| 7 | US20160251940A1 | High power laser flow assurance systems, tools and methods | 60 |
| 8 | US8360635B2 | System and method for using one or more thermal sensor probes for flow analysis, flow assurance and pipe cond… | 51 |
| 9 | US7673525B2 | Sensor system for pipe and flow condition monitoring of a pipeline configured for flowing hydrocarbon mixtures | 49 |
| 10 | US20100252260A1 | Method and Apparatus For Flow Assurance Management In Subsea Single Production Flowline | 41 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply by virtue of being in the corpus longer — read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not of current commercial importance.
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 Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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 a filing decision
Three findings that shape where a new filing would land, and how crowded the ground already is.
Concentration
40.5%
of 173 records held by top 5
The field is top-heavy but not closed
The leader alone accounts for 22 records, and the top 5 combined hold 70 of the 173 records in scope — 40.5% of the field. That still leaves close to 60% spread across a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, which is where most new activity would have to compete or find gaps.
Source: assignee ranking, 173 records
Momentum
0
filings in the latest year, all tracked leaders
Every major assignee has gone quiet
The leading assignees in this ranking each show zero filings in the most recent year, and one shows a full -100% year-on-year drop. Combined with a 2022 midpoint of only 4 filings against a 2020 peak of 10, this reads as a genuine cooling rather than just publication lag on the newest year alone.
Source: recent-year momentum by assignee
Class skew
60.1%
of records touch E21B (drilling)
Claims cluster around drilling and monitoring, not chemistry
E21B (earth & rock drilling) appears in 60.1% of the 173 records, while the inhibitor-chemistry class C09K sits at only 10.4%. A record can carry several IPC codes, so these are not mutually exclusive, but the gap shows most claim density sits in hardware and monitoring rather than in the chemical formulations themselves.
Source: IPC subclass distribution, 173 records
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to flow assurance and hydrate management, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and who has pulled back
The ranking covers 78 companies counted across the 173 records in scope — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, but the whole set the data endpoint returns.
Leader
22
records
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 22 records, nearly double the fifth-placed company's 12. That gap narrows quickly further down the ranking, where the tenth-placed assignee holds only 7 records.
Source: assignee ranking
Collaboration
10
co-assignee pairs
Filing pairs cluster around one operator-and-inventor group
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairing links one operator with its own exploration-and-operations affiliate at a count of 10 — the next strongest inventor pairings sit at 4. Co-filing is the exception here, not the norm.
Source: co-assignee pair analysis
Momentum
0
latest-year filings across tracked leaders
The leaders have stopped filing, at least for now
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the field leader and the major service companies, shows zero filings in the latest year. That is consistent with the field-wide decline from a 2020 peak, though the newest year is also the most affected by publication lag.
Source: recent-year momentum by assignee
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| BP Corp North America Inc | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology BV | 0 | — |
| Halliburton Energy Services Inc | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Tech Corp | 0 | -100% |
| Chevron USA Inc | 0 | — |
| BP Exploration Operating Co Ltd | 0 | — |
| Invensys Systems Inc | 0 | — |
| Openfield SAS | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's next
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with a settled top tier and a cooling filing rate — the open questions are about the gaps, not the leaders.
Map the white space in inhibitor chemistry
C09K materials claims sit well below the drilling and monitoring classes; a targeted search of kinetic and thermodynamic inhibitor formulations would show whether that gap is real or just under-indexed by this search string.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaTrack whether the 2026 dip is lag or decline
Publication lag means the latest year is always undercounted; revisiting filing counts for 2024-2026 in twelve months will show whether the field has genuinely stalled or is merely waiting on publication.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaWatch the long tail for new entrants
With close to 60% of records held outside the top 5 assignees, new activity is more likely to surface among smaller filers than among the currently quiet leaders.
Explore in Patsnap EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
The ranking covers 78 companies across 173 records, and it is a top-heavy field: the leading assignee holds 22 records, well ahead of the fifth-placed company's 12. The top 5 assignees combined hold 70 records, 40.5% of all 173 in scope, so a meaningful share of the field is concentrated among a small group of operators and oilfield service companies, while the remaining 60% spreads across a long tail of smaller filers.
Filing has slowed considerably from its 2020 peak of 10 records in a single year. By the 2022 midpoint, filings had fallen to 4, and every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows zero filings in the latest year. Some of that apparent drop is publication lag, since filings typically take about 18 months to publish, but the multi-year decline predates the most recent year and looks like a genuine cooling.
The dataset combines flow-assurance framing with claims in areas like thermodynamic and kinetic hydrate inhibitors, pipeline insulation and heating, restart-after-shutin procedures, and pigging strategy. By IPC class, drilling-related E21B claims dominate at 60.1% of the 173 records, with material analysis and testing (G01N), pipe fittings (F16L) and flow measurement (G01F) each appearing in around 11-17% of records, and inhibitor-chemistry materials (C09K) at 10.4%.
US12650075B2, assigned to Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras and granted in 2026, is a real-time monitoring system that integrates multiphase-flow and thermodynamic simulation outputs with live production data to detect hydrate, paraffin and emulsion formation in subsea lines before they cause a shutdown. It is one of the more recent filings in this dataset and illustrates where the field has moved: toward monitoring and prediction systems layered on top of established inhibitor chemistry, rather than new chemical formulations themselves.
Relative to the heavy concentration in drilling-adjacent (E21B) and monitoring (G01N, G01F) classes, inhibitor chemistry itself (C09K at 10.4% of records) and pipeline transport (F17D at 8.7%) look comparatively under-claimed. Specific sub-areas worth checking directly against the full record set include kinetic inhibitor dosing at low subcooling, restart-after-shutin thermal modelling, and subsea insulation retrofit systems, since filing density there appears thinner than the drilling and monitoring classes around them.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Flow Assurance and Hydrate Management in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole flow assurance and hydrate management corpus yourself, in your own scope.
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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.