Fastest
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/petrochemical-feedstocks-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Oil, Gas, Coal & RefiningPetrochemical Feedstocks Patents: Who Leads and What's Still Open
- Concentration at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 32.1% of all 5,426 records in scope, and the top ten hold 46.1% — a dense core with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind it.
- Filing cooled after a 2020 peak. Filings peaked at 244 in 2020 and eased to 115 by 2024, a -25% move from 2021's 153 — a genuine slowdown in the last complete filing years, not an artefact of publication lag.
- Refining and catalysis dominate the claim space. C10G (hydrocarbon oils and refining) appears in 53.7% of records and B01J (catalysis) in 35.8%, while fermentation-route chemistry (C12P) sits at just 3.4%.
5,426
Published Records
32%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-25%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (153 records) with 2024 (115) — 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 5,426 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 5,426 patent families published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, filtered to records that combine feedstock terms — petrochemical feedstocks, chemical feedstock, hydrocarbon feedstock — with operating-integrity concerns: equipment integrity, process condition monitoring, leak detection, material degradation, hydrocarbon processing and corrosion monitoring. The intersection is deliberately narrow: it is not general refining chemistry, but the subset where feedstock handling meets plant-integrity and process-monitoring claims.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in any trend line are undercounts and should not be read as an early sign of decline. The last year that can fairly be called complete is 2024.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
10,000 free credits to start
The numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 5,426-record corpus: how filing activity has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 117 in 2017 to a peak of 244 in 2020, then eased through 2021-2024, dropping from 153 to 115 — a -25% move over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures (down to 9 by 2026) reflect publication lag rather than a collapse in filing.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C10G (hydrocarbon oils and refining) touches 53.7% of the 5,426 records and B01J (catalysis) 35.8%, confirming that most activity sits squarely in conventional refining and catalytic processing rather than in adjacent fuels (C10L, 6.7%), drilling (E21B, 3.6%) or bio-route synthesis (C12P, 3.4%). Records can carry multiple classes, so these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 5,426 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 Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about petrochemical feedstocks patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey Patents
A representative claim from the corpus
Representative filing
Systems and methods for separation and extraction of heterocyclic compounds and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons from a hydrocarbon feedstock
SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
Methods of extracting 1-4 cycle heterocyclic compounds and 2-5 cycle polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons from a hydrocarbon feedstock are described. The methods include providing a hydrocarbon feedstock containing crude oil fractions, and determining an A/R ratio and an asphaltene concentration of the hydrocarbon feedstock. Based upon the A/R ratio and the asphaltene concentration, the treatable hydrocarbon feedstock undergoes one or more of cracking and fractionating. Subsequently, at least one targeted portion of the heterocyclic compounds is extracted from the fractionated stream with an aqueous solvent.Filed by Saudi Arabian Oil Company, published 2018-07-05 as US20180187104A1.
Most-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 860 |
| 2 | US4247486A | Cyclic hydroformylation process | 510 |
| 3 | US20140056770A1 | Methane conversion apparatus and process using a supersonic flow reactor | 471 |
| 4 | US4927857A | Method of methanol production | 410 |
| 5 | WO2008151149A2 | Production of oil in microorganisms | 392 |
| 6 | US7011154B2 | In situ recovery from a kerogen and liquid hydrocarbon containing formation | 383 |
| 7 | EP2060553A1 | Process for the conversion of hydrocarbons into alcohol | 371 |
| 8 | US6782947B2 | In situ thermal processing of a relatively impermeable formation to increase permeability of the formation | 364 |
| 9 | US7077199B2 | In situ thermal processing of an oil reservoir formation | 356 |
| 10 | US6880633B2 | In situ thermal processing of an oil shale formation to produce a desired product | 348 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus; read them as a signal of influence, not of current commercial weight.
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 Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Run it yourself
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Where to run it
For builders
MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →Insights
What the data means for filing strategy
Three read-outs from the corpus that bear directly on where to file next and where prior art is already dense.
Concentration
32.1% / 46.1%
top 5 / top 10 share of 5,426 records
A dense core, a long tail behind it
The five leading assignees combined account for 32.1% of all 5,426 records in scope, and the top ten reach 46.1%. Refining majors and licensors hold this core; everyone else files in smaller, more scattered volumes.
Ranking covers 100 companies total.
Momentum
153 → 115
2021 to 2024 filings, -25%
Filing cooled through the last complete years
Annual filings fell from 153 in 2021 to 115 in 2024, a -25% move, after peaking at 244 in 2020. That decline is measured against complete filing years, not against the still-incomplete 2025-2026 window.
Peak year: 2020 at 244 filings.
Technology mix
53.7% vs 3.4%
C10G share vs C12P share of records
Refining chemistry crowds out bio-routes
C10G (hydrocarbon oils and refining) touches 53.7% of the 5,426 records, while fermentation and enzymatic synthesis (C12P) reaches only 3.4%. The gap suggests bio-based feedstock routes remain comparatively open relative to conventional refining claims.
Records may carry multiple IPC classes.
Jurisdiction
1,788 US filings
vs 679 EPO, 611 WIPO, 381 Canada
Filing is US-centred with a thinner international spread
The United States receives more filings (1,788) than the EPO (679) or WIPO/PCT route (611) combined with Canada (381), pointing to a domestic-first filing pattern for much of this art.
Australia 337, India 300 round out the top receiving offices.
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 petrochemical feedstocks patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders are refining majors, licensing houses and a handful of specialty and bio-route entrants. Momentum in the most recent tracked year has flattened across several of the largest names, consistent with the broader post-2020 cooling.
Licensing & engineering
740 records
leading assignee filings
Process licensors hold the deepest single-assignee position
The leading assignee's 740 records sit well ahead of fifth place (217) and tenth place (123), reflecting decades of continuation filing around core refining and catalytic-conversion processes.
Gap between 1st and 5th place exceeds 500 records.
Integrated majors
217 / 123
5th place / 10th place filings
Integrated oil majors cluster in the second tier
Chevron, ExxonMobil-affiliated entities, Shell and Mobil Oil appear through the ranked leaders, each filing steadily rather than dominating any single subclass outright.
Ranking spans 100 companies total.
Co-filing
80 co-filings
strongest documented assignee pair
Licensor-operator pairs co-file at meaningful volume
The strongest co-assignee pairing in the corpus links a process licensor with a national oil company, with 80 shared filings — evidence of joint development programmes rather than arms-length licensing alone.
Ten co-assignee pairs are documented in total.
Momentum among the largest filers
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| UOP LLC | 0 | -100% |
| WR Grace & Co-Conn | 0 | — |
| Lummus Technology Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Chevron USA Inc | 0 | -100% |
| ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc | 0 | — |
| Mobil Oil Corp | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering Co | 0 | — |
| Shell Oil Co | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this from here
The landscape numbers point to where claim space is dense and where it thins out. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper into the specific claims and citing structure.
Map the white space against your own portfolio
Overlay your existing filings against the under-claimed branches identified here — bio-route fermentation, supersonic-flow conversion, in-line corrosion sensing — to see which gaps you can credibly claim first.
Explore white space in EurekaTrace the citation network around the most-cited records
The most-cited records in this corpus skew older; tracing forward and backward citations from them surfaces the design-around attempts and continuation strategies that followed.
Run a citation analysis in EurekaWatch the licensor-operator co-filing pattern
The strongest co-assignee pairs in this dataset link process licensors to operating companies. Tracking new pairings early can flag joint development programmes before they show up as competitive filings.
Track assignee activity in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
One assignee leads the ranked field with 740 records, well ahead of fifth place at 217 and tenth place at 123. The leading names are a mix of process licensors, integrated oil majors and specialty chemical companies, and together the top five account for 32.1% of the 5,426 records in scope. The gap between first place and the rest of the field is large enough that it likely reflects decades of continuation filing around core refining and conversion processes rather than a single breakthrough.
Filing peaked at 244 records in 2020 and then declined through the last complete filing years, falling from 153 in 2021 to 115 in 2024 — a -25% move. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but that reflects an 18-month publication lag rather than an actual drop in filing activity, so they should not be read as continued decline. Based on complete years, the honest read is a genuine cooling after 2020, not a collapse.
Hydrocarbon oils and refining (IPC class C10G) appears in 53.7% of the 5,426 records in scope, and catalysis-related chemistry (B01J) in 35.8%, making these the two most heavily claimed areas. Fuels (C10L) and drilling (E21B) trail well behind at 6.7% and 3.6% respectively, and fermentation-based synthesis (C12P) sits at just 3.4%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages overlap rather than summing to 100%.
The thinnest claim density relative to the corpus sits in bio-route fermentation chemistry (C12P at 3.4% of records) and in specific process niches such as supersonic-flow methane conversion and asphaltene-based extraction. These are documented in the corpus but at far lower volume than conventional refining and catalysis claims, suggesting room for narrowly drafted claims that do not immediately collide with the dense prior art around C10G and B01J. Any first-filer strategy there should still check citation chains from the most-cited records before drafting.
The United States receives the largest share of filings in this corpus at 1,788 records, followed by the European Patent Office at 679 and the WIPO/PCT route at 611. Canada, Australia and India follow at 381, 337 and 300 respectively. The US-heavy pattern suggests much of this art is filed domestically first, with international filing treated as a secondary step for a subset of applicants.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Research Petrochemical Feedstocks Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole petrochemical feedstocks patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
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.