Oil Water Gas Three Phase Separation Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
Oil Water Gas Three Phase Separation Patents: Who Holds the Vessel Claims
66.7% of the 123 records in scope sit with just five assignees, and the top ten account for 92.7% — this is a concentrated field, not a fragmented one. Filings ran from 6 in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2018. The tracked span from 2021 (2 filings) to 2024 (0 filings) shows a -100% change; because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 are not yet representative and should not be read as a further decline.
- 1MBL PARTNERS LLC30
- 2STEEPER ENERGY19
- 3NGLTECH11
- 4SAUDI ARABIAN OIL CO11
- 5PETROLIAM NASIONAL BHD11
See the full oil water gas three phase separation analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on this landscape
Who holds the most patents in three-phase oil-water-gas separation?
The ranked list returns 36 assignees, with the leader holding 30 of the 123 records in scope. The top five assignees combined hold 66.7% of all records, and the top ten hold 92.7%, so filing activity is heavily concentrated rather than spread evenly across the field. A company assessing freedom to operate should prioritise checking the leader’s portfolio before working through the long tail.
Is filing activity in three-phase separation growing or shrinking?
The peak year so far is 2018, with 17 filings, and the tracked window from 2021 to 2024 shows a -100% change. However, publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the low counts in 2025 and 2026 mostly reflect applications that have not yet published rather than an actual stop in R&D. Judging the trend on the strength of the last two years alone would be misleading.
What technology areas dominate the patent claims in this space?
B01D, covering separation processes generally, appears on 49.6% of the 123 records, making it the single largest subclass. E21B (well and drilling equipment) follows at 35.0%, with C02F (water treatment) and C10G (hydrocarbon refining) each at 24.4%. Because a record can carry multiple IPC classes, these figures add up to more than 100% and should be read as overlapping claim territory rather than mutually exclusive buckets.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Oil Water Gas Three Phase Separation covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.