Production Allocation & Well Test Metering Patents: Leaders 2026
- Top-heavy field. the five leading assignees together hold 211 of 416 records in scope (50.7%), and the top ten hold 69.7% — a narrow group has staked out most of the claim space.
- Filing kept climbing through 2024. activity rose from 13 filings in 2021 to 16 in 2024, up 23% over that span, before the two most recent years understate true activity due to publication lag.
- Flow measurement dominates the classification mix. G01F flow/level/volume measuring appears on 61.3% of records, far ahead of drilling (E21B, 31.0%) and materials analysis (G01N, 28.4%).
Filing growth compares 2021 (13 records) with 2024 (16) — 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 416 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity at the intersection of production allocation and well test metering — the instruments and methods operators use to attribute commingled flow back to individual wells and to validate those attributions against periodic test-separator or multiphase measurements. The search spans terms from gamma-ray densitometers and venturi differential pressure to water-liquid ratio correction and gas void fraction, capturing both hardware (multiphase flow meters, test separators) and the correction models layered on top of them.
The 416 records in scope run from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, giving a decade-long view of how measurement hardware claims and data-correction claims have moved together. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the final one to two years in any chart will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 416 records: how filing volume has moved year on year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
A decade of steady, not explosive, growth
Filings moved from 7 in 2017 to a peak of 17 in 2023, with the 2021-to-2024 window showing a 23% increase (13 to 16 filings). Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as incomplete rather than as a slowdown — publication lag means recent filings have not all surfaced yet.
Flow measurement carries the field
G01F (flow, level and volume measuring) sits on 61.3% of the 416 records, well ahead of E21B drilling-related claims (31.0%) and G01N material analysis and testing (28.4%). Smaller shares in G01V, G01R, G06N, B01D and A61B mark adjacent methods — geophysical logging, electrical measurement, AI-based inference, separation hardware and even diagnostic sensing — that ride alongside the core metering claims rather than replacing them.
Shares are the percentage of the 416 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Production Allocation and Well Test Metering with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about production allocation and well test metering and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art and a representative filing
US20160245684A1 — Method and Apparatus for Measurement of Individual Components of a Multiphase Fluid
A method for determining the flow rates of a multi-component mixture in a pipe including a gas phase and a liquid phase, comprising measuring the flow rates of the individual components, separately measuring the Reynolds number of the mixture, and combining both results to calculate a more accurate flow rate for the individual components. An apparatus for performing the method is also disclosed.Filed by FMC Kongsberg Subsea AS, published 2016-08-25.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6234030B1 | Multiphase metering method for multiphase flow | 195 |
| 2 | US6318156B1 | Multiphase flow measurement system | 194 |
| 3 | US20020033043A1 | Multiphase flow measurement system | 116 |
| 4 | US6915707B2 | Compact flow meter | 104 |
| 5 | US6335959B1 | Apparatus and method for determining oil well effluent characteristics for inhomogeneous flow conditions | 103 |
| 6 | US5287752A | Measurment of gas and liquid flowrates and watercut of multiphase mixtures of oil, water and gas | 93 |
| 7 | US6564619B2 | Multiphase flow measurement system | 92 |
| 8 | US6945095B2 | Non-intrusive multiphase flow meter | 86 |
| 9 | US20040139791A1 | Non-intrusive multiphase flow meter | 75 |
| 10 | WO2007129897A1 | A method and apparatus for tomographic multiphase flow measurements | 65 |
Citation counts reward older filings simply for having been in circulation longer; read them as a signal of influence on the field's vocabulary, not as a ranking of current 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 read-throughs from the concentration, growth and classification data above.
The top of the field is narrow
With the five leading assignees together accounting for 211 of 416 records, and the top ten reaching 69.7%, new entrants are filing into a space where the core measurement architectures are already well staked out by a small group.
Growth is real but measured
Filing volume rose from 13 in 2021 to 16 in 2024 — steady expansion rather than a surge. The 2023 peak of 17 filings suggests interest has not tapered, though the most recent two years are too fresh to read as trend.
Flow measurement claims dominate
G01F outweighs every other subclass by a wide margin, with E21B and G01N as the two other substantial categories. Smaller classes like G01V, G06N and B01D show where correction, inference and separation methods intersect with core metering but have not yet accumulated comparable density.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to production allocation and well test metering, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claim space
72 companies appear in the assignee ranking behind this landscape — the full set the data endpoint returns, not a curated top list. The leader holds 84 records; fifth place holds 24; tenth place holds 14, a steep drop-off that marks where the long tail begins.
One name sets the pace
The leading assignee's filing count is more than triple the fifth-place figure of 24, reflecting a portfolio built across multiple metering hardware generations and correction methods rather than a single product cycle.
A tight second tier
Positions five through ten cluster between 24 and 14 records, a group of established oilfield service and metering specialists competing for the same claim territory without a single one pulling clearly ahead.
Momentum has cooled at the top
Several of the most active historical filers show zero filings in the latest tracked year, including a year-on-year drop of -100% for one named assignee — consistent with publication lag rather than necessarily a retreat from the space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Phase Meters Inc. | 0 | — |
| Micro Motion Inc. | 0 | — |
| Weatherford Lamb, Inc. | 0 | — |
| FMC Kongsberg Subsea AS | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Solution Seeker AS | 0 | -100% |
| Schlumberger Technology LLC | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Technology Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated but still-active field. These next steps narrow from landscape to filing decision.
Map claims against the top 10 assignees
With 69.7% of records held by ten companies, a freedom-to-operate check should start by pulling their independent claims in G01F and E21B before drafting around any new metering method.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the under-claimed branches
G01V, G01R, G06N and B01D each sit under 4% of records — worth a closer look for narrower, more defensible claims than the crowded core flow-measurement art.
Run a white space search in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The assignee ranking behind this landscape covers 72 companies, with the leader holding 84 of the 416 records in scope. The top five assignees together account for 211 records, or 50.7% of the field, and the top ten reach 69.7%. That concentration means the leading oilfield service and metering specialists have already staked out most of the core measurement architectures, so new filings need to be checked carefully against their existing claim scope.
Filing volume grew from 13 records in 2021 to 16 in 2024, a 23% increase over that three-year window, with a peak of 17 filings in 2023. The two most recent years in the dataset show lower counts, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a genuine slowdown. Based on the last complete year of data, activity in the space is holding steady rather than declining.
Flow, level and volume measurement (IPC class G01F) appears on 61.3% of the 416 records, making it the dominant classification by a wide margin. Earth and rock drilling (E21B) and material analysis and testing (G01N) follow at 31.0% and 28.4% respectively, reflecting how metering claims often bundle in downhole and analytical elements. Smaller classes such as G01V, G01R, G06N, B01D and A61B each sit below 4% of records and mark narrower, less contested branches.
US20160245684A1, filed by FMC Kongsberg Subsea AS and published in 2016, describes a method for measuring individual component flow rates in a multiphase pipe by separately measuring the mixture's Reynolds number and combining it with direct flow measurements for a more accurate result. It is a representative example of how correction-based approaches sit alongside pure hardware claims in this field. Anyone drafting a similar Reynolds-number-assisted correction method should review its claim scope closely before finalising language.
The smaller IPC categories — G01V geophysics, G01R electric and magnetic measurement, G06N AI-based computing, B01D separation processes and A61B diagnostic sensing — each cover under 4% of the 416 records, well below the dominant G01F and E21B classes. These lighter-density branches, particularly AI-assisted multiphase inference and compact separation hardware, represent areas where claim space is less crowded and narrower filings may have more room to stand.
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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.