Oil, Gas & Refining Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 24.5% sits with a handful of filers. The top five assignees combine for 513 of 2,093 records in scope — concentrated, but not a monopoly on the field.
- Filing has cooled from its 2019 peak. 156 records published that year against 85 in 2017; the tracked 2021-to-2024 span shows a 25% decline (67 to 50), though 2025 onward is still filling in.
- Refining and fuels chemistry dominate the claim map. C10G hydrocarbon oils and refining and C07C acyclic/carbocyclic compounds together touch more than half of all records, while drilling (E21B) sits under 8%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (67 records) with 2024 (50) — 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 2,093 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this patent landscape covers
This landscape covers 2,093 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 across upstream production, refining, petrochemical feedstocks, coal mining, pipeline integrity and liquefied natural gas. The search string spans both process chemistry (petroleum refining, fossil fuel processing) and physical infrastructure (drill string, pipeline, asset integrity management), so the corpus mixes molecule-level claims with equipment and monitoring claims in the same technology family.
Filing activity peaked in 2019 and has since eased, though the most recent two years are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Receiving-office data shows the United States as the dominant venue, with Europe, the PCT route, Canada, Australia and India each carrying a meaningful share of the same underlying inventions filed for multi-jurisdiction protection.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,093-record corpus: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend, 2017 to 2026
Annual publications ran from 85 in 2017 to a peak of 156 in 2019, then eased to 67 in 2021 and 50 in 2024 — a 25% decline across that span. 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as later-filed applications publish; the drop should not yet be read as a slowdown in filing itself.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C10G (hydrocarbon oils and refining) leads at 30.2% of the 2,093 records, followed by C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) at 22.1% and C10L (fuels and firelighters) at 16.4%. Separation processes (B01D) and catalysis (B01J) each sit near 12%, while drilling-specific class E21B accounts for 7.9% — a smaller share than the refining and chemistry classes despite the search string's upstream terms.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,093 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Oil, Gas, Coal & Refining Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about oil, gas, coal & refining patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA recent filing worth reading closely
Scalable process for on-site biopolymer production for enhanced oil recovery projects (US20240401098A1)
A process for on-site biopolymer production related to enhanced oil recovery consisting of bacterium/fungus activation with selected substrates by placing them in a sterile, solid culture medium and incubating at a temperature until reaching a desired polysaccharide production level; performing a replication sequence in a sterile, liquid culture medium to increase the amount of biomass to obtain a laboratory inoculum; fermenting in fermentation vats or bioreactors, where substrates are transformed by microorganisms into biopolymers and biomass; filtration or centrifugation, causing the biopolymer to separate from the biomass; a liquid polymer obtained is mixed with injection water.Filed by INTERENERGY ARGENTINA S.A. — a 2024 filing that routes biopolymer manufacture on-site rather than shipping finished polymer to the well.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 860 |
| 2 | US20170027168A1 | Methods, products, and systems relating to making, providing, and using nanocrystalline (NC) products compris… | 304 |
| 3 | US4788544A | Well bore data transmission system | 285 |
| 4 | US5556671A | Artificial snow in an aggregate form of snow granules | 279 |
| 5 | US20110092726A1 | System for cultivation and processing of microorganisms, processing of products therefrom, and processing in … | 232 |
| 6 | WO2014153570A2 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 219 |
| 7 | US4884071A | Wellbore tool with hall effect coupling | 216 |
| 8 | US4542114A | Process for the recovery and recycle of effluent gas from the regeneration of particulate matter with oxygen … | 199 |
| 9 | US7980312B1 | Integrated in situ retorting and refining of oil shale | 195 |
| 10 | US20030042174A1 | Method to treat emulsified hydrocarbon mixtures | 179 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to be cited inside this corpus — treat them as a signal of influence, not of current technical 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 a filing decision
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting new claims or scoping a freedom-to-operate review.
The top is crowded, the middle is not
Five assignees combine for 513 of the 2,093 records in scope, and the leader alone accounts for 139. That concentration thins quickly — tenth place holds 44 — which means the field has a dense head and a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants rather than a handful of firms controlling the whole space.
Filing has eased from its 2019 peak, not collapsed
The corpus peaked at 156 records in 2019 and the tracked 2021-to-2024 window shows a 25% decline. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the apparent drop in 2025 and 2026 numbers reflects incomplete data rather than a real fall-off in inventive activity.
Refining chemistry, not drilling hardware, is the densest claim space
C10G (hydrocarbon oils and refining) and C07C (acyclic and carbocyclic compounds) between them touch over half the corpus once overlaps are set aside, while E21B (earth and rock drilling) sits at 7.9%. A search string built around upstream terms still resolves mostly into downstream process chemistry.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to oil, gas, coal & refining patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and where the openings sit
The ranked leaders span integrated majors, refining-technology licensors and smaller process-chemistry specialists. Recent-year momentum for several leading assignees has fallen to zero in the latest tracked year, consistent with the publication lag rather than a real pullback.
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 139 records against 71 for fifth place and 44 for tenth — a steep drop-off that marks this as a leader-plus-field structure rather than a tightly bunched top group.
Collaboration is limited and mostly internal
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, and the strongest links are between a parent organisation and its own research institutes rather than between independent companies — external joint filing is rare here.
US filings lead, but PCT and EPO carry real weight
The United States receives 690 filings, well ahead of Europe (253) and the PCT route (252). Canada, Australia and India each carry over 100 filings of the same underlying inventions, pointing to deliberate multi-jurisdiction strategy rather than domestic-only filing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Mawetal LLC | 0 | — |
| UOP LLC | 0 | -100% |
| GreatPoint Energy Inc | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering Co | 0 | — |
| Shell Internationale Research Maatschappij BV | 0 | — |
| Green Source Energy LLC | 0 | — |
| Rohm & Haas Co | 0 | — |
| LanzaTech Inc | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific follow-up work depending on whether the goal is filing, licensing or freedom-to-operate.
Map claim boundaries in the leader's portfolio
With 139 records concentrated in one assignee, a claim-by-claim review of that portfolio against C10G and C07C classes will show exactly which refining and fuels-chemistry routes are already blocked versus merely adjacent.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaScope a filing in the under-claimed branches
Biopolymer EOR and drillhole bioreactor cultivation show comparatively thin coverage relative to core refining classes; drafting around the representative 2024 filing is a reasonable starting point for a first claim.
Run a white space search in EurekaTrack the next 18 months of publications
Because 2025 and 2026 filings are still publishing, re-running this landscape in six months will materially change the recent-year trend line without changing the underlying concentration pattern.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about this patent landscape
Filing is led by a single assignee with 139 of the 2,093 records in scope, well ahead of fifth place at 71 and tenth place at 44. The top five assignees combined hold 513 records, or 24.5% of the field, which is a meaningful concentration but leaves the majority of records spread across a long tail of smaller filers. This structure matters for licensing strategy: negotiating with the leader alone will not clear most of the field.
Filing peaked in 2019 at 156 records and the tracked 2021-to-2024 window shows a 25% decline, from 67 records down to 50. However, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the lower counts seen in 2025 and 2026 are an artefact of incomplete data rather than evidence that inventive activity has stopped. The fairer read is that filing has cooled from its 2019 peak through 2024, with the very latest years still an open question.
Hydrocarbon oils and refining processes (IPC class C10G) lead at 30.2% of the 2,093 records, followed by acyclic and carbocyclic compound chemistry (C07C) at 22.1% and fuels (C10L) at 16.4%. Separation processes and catalysis each sit near 12%. Drilling-specific claims (E21B) make up a comparatively small 7.9% of the corpus, so despite upstream terms in the search scope, the density of prior art sits mostly in downstream process chemistry.
The clearest openings sit in branches adjacent to the dense refining and fuels classes rather than within them — areas like on-site biopolymer production for enhanced oil recovery, nanocrystalline cellulose composites used in well applications, and drillhole bioreactor cultivation systems show comparatively few records. A representative 2024 filing on scalable biopolymer production for EOR illustrates the kind of narrow, process-specific claim that can still stake out new ground in this space.
Ownership is concentrated at the very top but thins out quickly. The leading assignee alone holds 139 of 2,093 records, and the top ten combined hold 772 records (36.9% of the field), but only ten co-assignee pairs exist across the entire corpus, most of them between a parent company and its own research institutes. That combination — a strong leader, a fast drop-off after the top few, and almost no external collaboration — points to a field where most companies file independently rather than through joint ventures.
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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.