SAGD Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage Patents: Leaders, Claim Density and Open Ground
62.1% of all 206 records sit with just five assignees, so a new entrant is filing directly against a concentrated incumbent set, not a fragmented field. Filings climbed from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 16 in 2021, then declined toward the 2024 figure used for the -100% growth comparison; the last two years in the dataset are undercounted because of publication lag rather than a real stop in filing.
- 1CONOCOPHILLIPS CO51
- 2CENOVUS ENERGY INC40
- 3SUNCOR ENERGY INC13
- 4CONOCOPHILLIPS CANADA RESOURCES13
- 5TOTAL E&P CANADA11
See the full steam assisted gravity drainage 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 on SAGD patenting
Who are the leading patent holders in Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage?
The assignee ranking covers 63 companies counted by records, with the single leading assignee holding 51 of the 206 records in scope. The top five assignees combined hold 62.1% of all records, which means ownership is concentrated among a small group of operators and service companies active in Alberta oil sands rather than spread evenly across the field. Anyone assessing freedom to operate should focus diligence on that leading group before looking at the long tail of single- or low-filing entrants.
Is SAGD patent filing activity declining?
Filing counts rose to a peak of 16 records in 2021 and fell toward the 2024 figure that produces the -100% comparison used on this page, but the two most recent years in the dataset are understated because patent publication lags filing by roughly 18 months. That means the apparent drop after 2021 is partly a data artefact rather than a confirmed slowdown. The 2024 figure is the most recent year that can be treated as a complete count.
What technology areas dominate SAGD patents?
E21B, the earth and rock drilling and wells class, touches 97.6% of the 206 records in scope, making it by far the dominant technology area. Materials for miscellaneous applications (C09K) and hydrocarbon oil refining (C10G) are the next most common at 9.7% and 7.8% respectively, but every other class in the dataset sits at 2% or below. This tells you that most patenting activity addresses wellbore and injection mechanics rather than surface processing or chemistry.
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 Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage 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.