Formation Pressure & Fluid Sampling Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing peaked in 2018 at 28 records and has not returned to that level since — the leader-to-fifth-place gap (192 vs 62 families) shows the field consolidated around a small set of service majors during the run-up.
- E21B carries 88.1% of the 571 records but G01N (16.6%) and G01V (14.4%) show most activity still frames the problem as drilling hardware, not as analytical or geophysical method — a gap worth checking before filing.
- 2021→2024 filings fell 60% from 5 to 2 in the leading assignee's count — read this against the 18-month publication lag rather than as a verdict on the technology's future.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (2) — 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.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing formation pressure testing and downhole fluid sampling — the pretest drawdown, sealing-pad, and sample-chamber mechanics that determine whether a wireline or MWD tool can pull a representative, uncontaminated fluid sample under pressure. The search combines core testing and sampling terms with the specific failure modes and analysis steps that separate a usable measurement from a supercharged or mud-filtrate-contaminated one: sealing pad design, mud filtrate contamination, pressure buildup analysis, supercharging effect, mobility estimation and sample chamber engineering.
571 published records sit in scope, spanning 2015 through the mid-2026 cut-off. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years of the trend are still filling in and should not be read as a slowdown in real filing activity.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 571-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Annual filings rose to a peak of 28 records in 2018, then eased back; the leading assignee's own count fell from 5 in 2021 to 2 in 2024, a 60% drop over that span. Treat 2025 and 2026 as incomplete rather than declining, given the publication lag.
IPC subclass composition
E21B (earth and rock drilling) covers 88.1% of the 571 records, confirming this is fundamentally a drilling-hardware field. G01N (material analysis, 16.6%) and G01V (geophysics, 14.4%) show a meaningful minority of filings frame the problem analytically rather than mechanically; G01R, B01L, G06F, G06V and F04B each sit under 5%, marking smaller but present cross-disciplinary claims in electronics, lab apparatus, data processing, imaging and pumps.
Shares are the percentage of the 571 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Formation Pressure and Fluid Sampling While Drilling with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about formation pressure and fluid sampling while drilling and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US20240254877A1 — Temperature/Fluid-Dependent Material Protecting a Wellbore Tool During Conveyance or Logging
A downhole fluid sampling tool with a flow port, a sample chamber fluidly coupled to that port, a pump to draw fluid through the port into the chamber, a filter on the port inlet, and a removable filter cover that keeps fluid off the filter until it's needed.Filed by Halliburton Energy Services, published 2024-08-01.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6346813B1 | Magnetic resonance method for characterizing fluid samples withdrawn from subsurface formations | 274 |
| 2 | US20040000433A1 | Method and apparatus for subsurface fluid sampling | 141 |
| 3 | US20040119471A1 | Downhole high resolution NMR spectroscopy with polarization enhancement | 129 |
| 4 | US4745802A | Formation testing tool and method of obtaining post-test drawdown and pressure readings | 127 |
| 5 | US7461547B2 | Methods and apparatus of downhole fluid analysis | 116 |
| 6 | US5602334A | Wireline formation testing for low permeability formations utilizing pressure transients | 111 |
| 7 | US20100059221A1 | Subsea fluid sampling and analysis | 102 |
| 8 | US6964301B2 | Method and apparatus for subsurface fluid sampling | 95 |
| 9 | US20060076132A1 | Apparatus and method for formation evaluation | 93 |
| 10 | US20060155474A1 | System and methods of deriving fluid properties of downhole fluids and uncertainty thereof | 81 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate them — read this as a signal of influence on the field, not of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three readings of the same corpus: where citation weight sits, how concentrated the leader board is, and what the receiving-office spread implies about where protection is actually sought.
Foundational NMR fluid-characterization claim still anchors the field
The most-cited record in this set, on magnetic resonance characterization of withdrawn fluid samples, predates the current filing wave by nearly two decades. Its citation count reflects age and foundational breadth more than current competitive weight, but newer filings still route around its claim scope.
A steep drop from the top filer to the rest of the ranked field
The leading assignee's family count (192) is more than three times the fifth-place count (62), and tenth place sits at just 14. That gap says the core sealing-pad and pretest-drawdown mechanics are occupied territory for one or two service majors, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants behind them.
US and UK dominate; PCT filings show a real internationalisation push
United States (199) and United Kingdom (90) lead receiving-office counts, with WIPO/PCT filings at 63 suggesting a meaningful share of applicants are still deciding where to seek protection. Canada, Norway and Australia each carry filings in the tens, consistent with offshore and North Sea drilling activity.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to formation pressure and fluid sampling while drilling, with the prior art for and against each one.
The ranked field and where it is thin
The ranking covers 100 companies counted in patent families. It is dominated at the top by a small group of oilfield service majors and their corporate variants, with co-assignee pairings between related entities of the same parent group appearing frequently — a sign of internal restructuring and joint filings rather than independent competition.
One filer's count more than triples the fifth-place total
The top-ranked assignee's family count of 192 dwarfs the fifth-place figure of 62, and co-assignee pairs show that count is split across several corporate variants of the same group rather than a single filing entity.
Recent-year filings from the leading names have gone quiet
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the field leader, shows zero filings in the latest year on record. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this reads as incomplete data rather than a real halt — but it means the newest strategic moves are not yet visible in the public record.
Filing activity clusters inside a small number of corporate families
The strongest co-assignee pairing shares 20 families, and the next two strongest sit at 17 and 15 — all involving variants of the same parent group. That pattern suggests consolidated IP strategy within large service companies rather than fragmented ownership.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | 0 | — |
| Baker Hughes Holdings LLC | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology B.V. | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Holdings Limited | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Canada Limited | 0 | — |
| PRAD Research and Development Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Services Petroliers Schlumberger SA | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to a mechanically mature core and a thinner analytical layer around it. Two directions are worth pursuing depending on whether the goal is defense or white space.
Map the sealing-pad and drawdown claim boundaries
Before filing anything touching pretest drawdown or sealing-pad mechanics, chart the exact claim scope held by the leading assignee and its corporate variants — the concentration at the top means a naive filing is likely to overlap existing coverage.
Explore claim scope in EurekaPrioritise the analytical and software layer
G01N, G01V, G06F and G06V together sit well under half the record count of E21B, suggesting mobility estimation, contamination detection and buildup-analysis software are comparatively open ground.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
One oilfield service major leads the ranked field with 192 patent families, more than three times the fifth-place count of 62. That leader's filings are split across several corporate variants of the same group, which co-file frequently — the strongest co-assignee pairing shares 20 families. This concentration means the core sealing-pad and pretest-drawdown mechanics are heavily claimed by a small number of related entities, so a new entrant should expect to design around existing coverage rather than file into open space.
Filing peaked in 2018 at 28 records and has not returned to that level since. The leading assignee's own filings fell from 5 in 2021 to 2 in 2024, a 60% drop over that span, but 2025 and 2026 data are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months. The honest read is that the field has settled below its 2018 peak, not that it is accelerating or collapsing in real time.
E21B, the earth and rock drilling wells classification, covers 88.1% of the 571 records in scope, confirming this is primarily a drilling-hardware field. G01N (material analysis, 16.6%) and G01V (geophysics, 14.4%) show a meaningful secondary presence of analytical and geophysical claims. Smaller classes — G01R, B01L, G06F, G06V and F04B — each sit under 5% and mark cross-disciplinary claims in electronics, lab apparatus, data processing, imaging and pumps that sit outside the mechanical core.
The United States leads receiving offices with 199 filings, followed by the United Kingdom at 90 and WIPO/PCT filings at 63. Canada (47), Norway (40) and Australia (38) round out the leading receiving offices, consistent with major offshore and North Sea drilling regions. The sizeable PCT count suggests a real share of applicants are still routing toward multiple national phases rather than committing to a single jurisdiction.
US20240254877A1, filed by Halliburton and published in 2024, claims a downhole fluid sampling tool with a sample chamber, a pump, a filter on the flow-port inlet, and a removable filter cover that keeps fluid off the filter until sampling begins. It is a fairly specific mechanical arrangement rather than a broad method claim, so it constrains designs that use a removable filter cover in this configuration but leaves alternative contamination-protection approaches — different filter geometries, sensor-based contamination detection, or chemical barriers — open. Anyone building a similar tool should compare their filter-protection mechanism against this claim set specifically rather than assume the whole sampling concept is blocked.
The analytical and software layer around the mechanical core looks comparatively open: real-time mobility estimation, contamination sensing inside the sample chamber, and buildup-analysis software each sit in IPC classes with far lower record counts than the E21B drilling-hardware core. Image-based filtrate detection and miniaturised lab-on-chip sampling approaches also show thin coverage relative to their technical relevance. These are not guarantees of freedom to operate, but they are areas where filing density is low enough to warrant a first-claim search before assuming the space is occupied.
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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.