Residue Upgrading Patents: Top Companies, Trends & Gaps 2026
Residue Upgrading and Heavy Oil Hydroprocessing Patents
One assignee dominates the ranking. the leader holds 14 records against a long tail where fifth and tenth place each sit at 2, a pattern of one strong filer surrounded by occasional entrants rather than a competitive cluster. Filings peaked at 7 in 2017. The 2021-to-2024 window recorded a -100% change, the last stretch long enough for publication lag to have settled, which points to genuinely thinner recent filing rather than an artefact of recency.
- 1SAUDI ARABIAN OIL CO14
- 2CHEVRON USA INC10
- 3ETHICAL SOLUTIONS LLC5
- 4COUNCIL OF SCI & IND RES3
- 5CHABOT JULIE2
See the full residue upgrading and heavy oil hydroprocessing 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 about this landscape
Who holds the most patents in residue upgrading and heavy oil hydroprocessing?
One assignee leads the ranking with 14 of the 35 records in this dataset, well ahead of the rest of the field where fifth and tenth place each hold only 2 records. That gap indicates a single company has built a sustained filing programme around slurry catalyst recycling and related process control, while other filers appear with isolated, one-off filings. Anyone assessing competitive risk in this space should treat that leader’s portfolio as the primary reference point rather than averaging across the full ranking.
Is patent filing in residue upgrading and heavy oil hydroprocessing growing or slowing?
Filing peaked at 7 records in 2017 and has not returned to that level since. Between 2021 and 2024, the last year clean enough to read past publication lag, filings fell 100%, from 3 down to 0. That is a genuine slowdown in completed filings rather than an artefact of recent data still being published, though it is worth revisiting once 2025 and 2026 records finish appearing.
What technology areas dominate the patent claims in this field?
Hydrocarbon oil refining, IPC class C10G, appears in 82.9% of the 35 records in scope, making it by far the largest single category. Catalysis-related classes (B01J) and separation processes (B01D) appear in 22.9% and 17.1% of records respectively, with fuels and materials classes trailing further behind. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and they show that claims center on the refining process itself rather than downstream separation or materials handling.
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 Residue Upgrading and Heavy Oil Hydroprocessing 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.