Sour Service Materials Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 61.7% of all 128 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 83.6% — a small group has occupied most of the claim space.
- Alloys and heat treatment dominate. C22C alloy claims appear in 53.1% of records and C21D heat treatment in 42.2%, far ahead of drilling, piping, plating and testing classes.
- Filing has cooled from its 2018 peak. Output peaked at 16 records in 2018; by the last complete year tracked, 2021-to-2024 filing fell 50%, from 4 to 2 records among leading filers.
Filing growth compares 2021 (4 records) with 2024 (2) — 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 128 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Sour service materials and corrosion patenting sits at the intersection of metallurgy and oilfield engineering: alloy chemistry, heat treatment schedules, corrosion-resistant cladding and tubing designed to survive H2S partial pressure, elemental sulfur attack and sulfide stress cracking. This dataset covers 128 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, searched against sour gas service, weld hardness limits, inhibitor film persistency and nickel alloy tubing language. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend undercounts real filing activity.
The picture that emerges is a field with dense prior art at the top of the ranking and a long tail of narrower filers below it. Alloy and heat-treatment claims form the technical core, while drilling, piping, plating and inspection classes sit further out and see comparatively less claim density.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 128-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, the composition shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filing rose to a peak of 16 records in 2018, then eased. Comparing 2021 to 2024 — the last year that can be treated as complete given the ~18-month publication lag — leading filers' output fell 50%, from 4 to 2 records. 2025 and 2026 figures will continue to fill in and should not be read as a further decline.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C22C (alloys) and C21D (heat treatment of metals) are the two largest classes, present in 53.1% and 42.2% of the 128 records respectively — evidence that most of the documented technical effort goes into the base material and its processing rather than into downstream equipment. E21B (drilling), F16L (pipes and fittings), C25D (electroplating) and G01N (testing) each cover a smaller, more specialised slice, and B23K (welding) and F04B (pumps) are the thinnest classes in the set.
Shares are the percentage of the 128 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Sour Service Materials and Corrosion with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about sour service materials and corrosion and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Process for protecting carbon steel pipe from sulfide stress cracking in severe sour service environments
The filing describes determining a minimum safe operating temperature for a process fluid, then equipping and operating a heating supply so the internal wall of a carbon steel pipe stays above that threshold — an operational route to preventing sulfide stress cracking without changing the pipe's metallurgy.Filed by ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company, published 2022-07-14 as WO2022150241A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7025138B2 | Method and apparatus for hydrogen sulfide monitoring | 66 |
| 2 | US8870237B2 | Mechanically attached fitting for use in a sour environment | 35 |
| 3 | US10480054B2 | Coiled tube with varying mechanical properties for superior performance and methods to produce the same by a … | 29 |
| 4 | US20120186686A1 | Coiled tube with varying mechanical properties for superior performance and methods to produce the same by a … | 29 |
| 5 | CA2765294A1 | Coiled tube with varying mechanical properties for superior performance and methods to produce the same by a … | 27 |
| 6 | JP1990247360A | Martensitic stainless steel having high strength and excellent corrosion resistance and stress corrosion crac… | 27 |
| 7 | US20150315684A1 | High-strength stainless steel seamless tube or pipe for oil country tubular goods, and method of manufacturin… | 24 |
| 8 | US20200115998A1 | Lift plungers with electrodeposited coatings, and systems and methods for producing the same | 23 |
| 9 | US20070074793A1 | Highly anticorrosive high strength stainless steel pipe for linepipe and method for manufacturing same | 21 |
| 10 | US20200216936A1 | High-strength stainless steel seamless pipe for oil country tubular goods, and method for manufacturing same | 20 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat them as a signal of influence within the searched set, not as a measure of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs of the dataset that matter more for strategy than any single ranking line.
A small group occupies most of the claim space
The top 5 assignees combined account for 61.7% of all 128 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 83.6%. New entrants filing broad alloy or heat-treatment claims are filing into ground that a handful of established players already hold densely.
Alloy chemistry is the densest single class
C22C alloy claims and C21D heat-treatment claims together dominate the composition chart. Downstream classes — piping, plating, testing, welding — carry far fewer records, which is where narrower, more defensible claims are more likely to sit.
Growth has cooled from its 2018 peak, not stopped
Filing peaked at 16 records in 2018. Among leading filers, output fell from 4 records in 2021 to 2 in 2024. Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, 2025-2026 figures are still filling in and should not yet be read as confirming a further drop.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to sour service materials and corrosion, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and where it opens up
The ranking covers 28 companies counted in records — the full set the data endpoint returns, not a top-50 or top-100 cut. The leader holds 24 records; by fifth place that figure is 10, and by tenth place it is 4, tracing a steep drop from leader to long tail.
One filer sets the pace by a wide margin
The top-ranked assignee holds 24 records, more than double the fifth-place filer's 10. That gap suggests a first-mover advantage in core alloy and heat-treatment claims that later filers have had to work around rather than repeat.
The mid-tier thins quickly
Record counts drop from 10 at fifth place to 4 at tenth, and the top 10 combined still make up 83.6% of all 128 records. Companies outside that group are filing in narrower, less crowded niches by necessity as much as by strategy.
Co-filing is rare and mostly bilateral
Only 5 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, each linking two named parties rather than forming larger consortia. That points to mostly independent filing strategies rather than joint-development patenting in this field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORP | 0 | — |
| JFE Steel Corporation | 0 | — |
| Modumetal LLC | 0 | — |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) | 0 | — |
| Vallourec Tubos do Brasil SA | 0 | — |
| Marathon Oil Company | 0 | — |
| Tenaris Coiled Tubes LLC | 0 | — |
| Lokring Technology LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio strategy or technical scouting.
Map claims against the leader's 24 records
Before filing new alloy or heat-treatment claims, check them against the leading assignee's portfolio directly rather than against the field average — that filer alone holds close to a fifth of all 128 records.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaWatch the under-claimed sub-areas
Inhibitor film persistency, weld hardness limit control and elemental sulfur corrosion monitoring carry fewer records than the alloy core and may offer clearer paths to allowable claims.
Run a white space search in EurekaTrack the next 18 months of filings as they surface
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures shown here will keep rising; re-check the trend before concluding the field has slowed.
Set a filing alert in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The ranking covers 28 companies, and it is heavily front-loaded: the leading assignee holds 24 records, more than double the count held by the company in fifth place, which sits at 10. The top 5 assignees together account for 61.7% of all 128 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 83.6%. Beyond that group, filing counts drop quickly into a long tail of narrower filers, so any competitive review should focus first on the handful of companies holding most of the volume.
Filing activity peaked at 16 records in 2018 and has eased since then. Comparing leading filers' output from 2021 to 2024 — the most recent year that can be treated as complete — shows a 50% decline, from 4 records to 2. Figures from 2025 onward will keep rising as publications catch up, since publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so it is too early to call the field in continued decline based on the very latest years alone.
Alloy chemistry, classified under IPC C22C, is the largest single class, appearing in 53.1% of the 128 records in scope. Heat treatment of metals, C21D, follows at 42.2%. Drilling equipment, pipes and fittings, electroplating, and material testing each cover smaller shares, and welding and pump-related claims are the thinnest classes tracked. Because a record can carry more than one IPC class, these shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
WO2022150241A1 was filed by ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company and published in July 2022. It describes a process for protecting carbon steel pipe from sulfide stress cracking by determining the minimum safe operating temperature for a sour process fluid, then equipping and running a heating supply to keep the pipe's internal wall above that threshold. It is an operational and equipment-based route to preventing sulfide stress cracking rather than a change to the pipe's own metallurgy, which distinguishes it from the alloy- and heat-treatment-heavy claims that dominate the rest of this dataset.
The technology composition shows the alloy (C22C) and heat treatment (C21D) classes carrying by far the most records, while corrosion-resistant cladding, inhibitor film persistency, weld hardness limit control and elemental sulfur corrosion monitoring show markedly fewer filings. That pattern suggests these narrower, more specific sub-areas carry less prior art density and may leave more room for a new, well-scoped claim than another broad alloy composition filing would.
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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.