Pipelines & Pressure Equipment Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Top 5 filers hold 31.0% of all 493 records, and the top 10 combined reach 54.8% — concentrated at the top with a long tail of single-digit filers behind them.
- Filings fell 68% from 2021 to 2024, the last year publication lag lets us treat as complete, after a 2020 peak of 72 records.
- E21B earth and rock drilling covers 62.5% of records, while corrosion-specific class C23F sits at just 4.5% — a narrow, testable niche next to a crowded core.
Filing growth compares 2021 (40 records) with 2024 (13) — 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 493 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 493 published records matching pipeline, pressure-equipment and well-integrity terms across formation fluid handling, pipeline flow, corrosion rate and asset integrity concepts. The scope spans 2015 through the August 2026 data cut-off, though publication lag means the most recent one to two years understate actual filing activity. Records are drawn from a search string combining oil-gas pipeline and pressure-equipment terminology with functional terms like well pressure, formation evaluation and corrosion rate, giving a field defined by function rather than by a single IPC class.
Filing activity peaked in 2020 at 72 records and has since declined through the last complete year, 2024. The technology mix is dominated by drilling and wellbore mechanics, with materials, corrosion and analytical classes forming a secondary tier that is individually much smaller but collectively significant for differentiation.
Filing trends and technology composition
The two charts below use the same 493-record base: one tracks filings by year, the other breaks the same records down by IPC subclass. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the subclass shares add up to more than 100%.
A sharp pull-back from the 2020 peak
Filings ran from 22 in 2017 to a peak of 72 in 2020, then fell to 40 by 2021 and 13 by 2024 — a 68% drop over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as publications catch up with filing dates already on record.
Drilling mechanics dominate; corrosion and materials trail
E21B (earth and rock drilling) appears in 62.5% of the 493 records, more than five times the next largest class. C22C alloys, B01J catalytic processes and C07C compounds each sit in the 9-12% range, with material-testing (G01N), separation (B01D), water treatment (C02F) and corrosion (C23F) classes each under 7% — smaller footholds where fewer claims compete for the same ground.
Shares are the percentage of the 493 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Pipelines & Pressure Equipment Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about pipelines & pressure equipment patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative filing and the most-cited records
Equipment for use in corrosive environments and methods for forming thereof
A corrosion-resistant pressure vessel for sulfur-containing environments such as refineries and oil and gas production facilities, specified to a corrosion rate of less than 15 mpy under defined H2S exposure conditions. The vessel is fabricated from carbon steel with controlled silicon content for sulfur corrosion protection and complies with prevailing design, fabrication, inspection and metallurgical standards.Filed by Chevron U.S.A. Inc., published 2013-08-08 as US20130202907A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170322086A1 | Visual and thermal image recognition based PHM technique for wellsite | 203 |
| 2 | US5332043A | Wellhead connector | 147 |
| 3 | US3757516A | Geothermal energy system | 138 |
| 4 | US20160097270A1 | Integrated Drilling Control System | 98 |
| 5 | US20070263488A1 | Wellbore telemetry and noise cancellation systems and method for the same | 91 |
| 6 | US20130343858A1 | Method of deploying a mobile rig system | 90 |
| 7 | US20070051512A1 | Magnetic Locator Systems and Methods of Use at a Well Site | 79 |
| 8 | WO2023137304A2 | Ammonia-hydrocarbon fuel compositions, methods of use, and systems thereof | 73 |
| 9 | US7347261B2 | Magnetic locator systems and methods of use at a well site | 72 |
| 10 | US6059042A | Completions insertion and retrieval under pressure (CIRP) apparatus including the snaplock connector | 66 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations within this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the ranking, the trend line and the IPC mix are read together: concentration at the top, a cooling filing rate, and a technology mix skewed hard toward one mechanical class.
A small group holds a third of the field
The top 5 assignees combined account for 31.0% of all 493 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 54.8%. That leaves close to half the field spread across 76 more ranked companies, many with only a handful of filings — a long tail rather than a duopoly.
Filing activity has pulled back from its 2020 peak
After peaking at 72 records in 2020, filings dropped to 40 in 2021 and to 13 by 2024, the last year unaffected by publication lag. That is a real pull-back in claim activity, not an artefact of the data cut-off, though 2025-2026 counts will still rise as later publications land.
Drilling mechanics crowd out everything else
E21B (earth and rock drilling for wells) appears in well over half of all 493 records, dwarfing the next largest class, C22C alloys, at 12.0%. Corrosion-specific claims under C23F sit at only 4.5%, suggesting the corrosion-resistance angle is claimed far less densely than the mechanical drilling and completion side of the field.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to pipelines & pressure equipment patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Leaders, challengers and where activity is thinning out
The ranked leaders sit alongside a wide field of smaller filers. Recent-year momentum figures show even some ranked leaders posting zero filings in the latest year, consistent with the broader pull-back from the 2020 peak.
One filer sets the pace, but not by a wide margin
The top-ranked assignee holds 34 records against 27 for fifth place and 21 for tenth — a gradual taper rather than a cliff, meaning displacement in the ranking is plausible with a modest, well-targeted filing programme.
A long tail of smaller and single-filing entrants
With 270 of 493 records held by the top 10, the remaining 223 records are spread across 76 more ranked companies. Many of these are likely single- or few-filing entrants, which is where freedom-to-operate searches often turn up unexpected blocking claims.
Recent-year activity has gone quiet even at the top
Several ranked assignees, including some of the largest historical filers, show zero or flat filings in the latest tracked year. That is consistent with the field-wide drop from 40 filings in 2021 to 13 in 2024, rather than any single company's retreat.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Enhanced Drilling AS | 1 | 0% |
| Saipem SpA | 1 | — |
| FLUSCHE MARK J | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology Corp | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Co | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Holdings Ltd | 0 | — |
| Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Eavor Technologies Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with a settled mechanical core and thinner, more open adjacent branches. The next steps depend on whether the goal is defensive clearance or offensive filing.
Run a freedom-to-operate check against the long tail
With 76 companies outside the top 10 holding nearly half the field's records, a clearance search needs to go well past the leading names to catch narrower, single-filer blocking claims.
Explore assignee-level search in EurekaTest claim density in the under-claimed branches
Corrosion-rate methods and produced-water treatment sit at under 5% of records each, against 62.5% for core drilling mechanics — worth a targeted novelty search before committing R&D budget.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrack whether the 2021-2024 pull-back continues
Filings dropped 68% over that span; the next 12-18 months of publications will show whether that is a permanent contraction or a temporary lull as the 2025-2026 backlog clears.
Set up filing-trend alerts in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The ranked leader holds 34 records within this 493-record dataset, with fifth place at 27 and tenth at 21 — a gradual taper rather than one dominant player. The top 5 assignees combined account for 31.0% of all records, and the top 10 reach 54.8%, leaving close to half the field spread across 76 further ranked companies. This means the field has meaningful concentration at the top but is not controlled by a single firm, so competitive monitoring needs to cover well beyond the top names.
Filings peaked in 2020 at 72 records, then fell from 40 in 2021 to 13 in 2024, a 68% drop over that three-year span — 2024 being the last year that publication lag lets us treat as reasonably complete. This points to a real slowdown in claim activity rather than a data artefact. Figures for 2025 and 2026 will still rise as later publications land, so they should not be read as confirming the decline has continued.
E21B, covering earth and rock drilling for wells, appears in 62.5% of the 493 records in scope, making it by far the largest single class. Alloys (C22C), catalytic and chemical processes (B01J) and carbocyclic compounds (C07C) each sit in the 9-12% range as secondary clusters. Corrosion-specific claims under C23F and water treatment under C02F are comparatively small, at 4.5% and 4.7% respectively, which suggests these are less densely claimed than the mechanical drilling core.
The classes furthest from the crowded E21B core — corrosion-rate test methods, H2S-resistant pressure vessel alloys, produced-water treatment and material-analysis-based asset integrity monitoring — each account for under 7% of the 493 records. These smaller footholds are where a new filing faces fewer prior claims to design around, though a proper novelty search against the specific sub-claims is still necessary before committing to a filing strategy.
US20130202907A1, filed by Chevron U.S.A. Inc., claims a corrosion-resistant pressure vessel specified to a defined corrosion rate under H2S exposure, made from carbon steel with controlled silicon content and compliant with recognised design and fabrication standards. Anyone designing a sulfur-service pressure vessel using a similar silicon-controlled carbon steel composition and meeting comparable corrosion-rate thresholds should check this claim scope directly. It sits within the broader C23F corrosion class, which at 4.5% of records is one of the thinner slices of this dataset, so nearby claim space is worth mapping carefully rather than assuming it is open.
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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.