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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/steam-assisted-gravity-drainage-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Thermal Heavy Oil RecoverySteam 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 peaked in 2021 at 16 and the leader's own recent-year momentum reads zero — a signal that publication lag, not a real drop-off, is the likely explanation.
- 97.6% of records sit in E21B (drilling/wells), while adjacent classes like fluid flow control and separation processes barely register — that gap is where claim space is still open.
206
Published Records
62%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-100%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
CA
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (16 records) with 2024 (0) — 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 206 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What the SAGD patent record actually shows
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage patenting concentrates on well-pair configuration, subcool control and steam chamber management inside a single dominant IPC subclass, E21B (earth and rock drilling), which touches 97.6% of the 206 records in scope. Downstream materials and separation classes appear, but at single-digit shares, which points to a field defined by wellbore and injection mechanics rather than by fluid chemistry or surface processing.
The filing trend rose to a peak of 16 records in 2021 and has since fallen toward zero by 2024 — a -100% move over that three-year span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not be read as an active decline; the safest complete read of momentum stops at 2024.
Filing activity, 2017-2026 (2026 partial)
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trend, geography and technology composition
Canada and the United States dominate the receiving offices, consistent with SAGD's origin and commercial deployment in Alberta oil sands, with WIPO PCT filings a distant third route to broader coverage.
A sharp 2021 peak, then a lagged tail
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.
One dominant class, several thin adjacents
E21B covers 97.6% of the 206 records, with C09K (materials, 9.7%) and C10G (hydrocarbon oil refining, 7.8%) as the next most-touched classes; the remaining classes — protection/detox, fluid flow control, separation, vibration and filament spinning — each sit at or under 2% of records, marking them as thin, specific pockets rather than active claim fronts.
Shares are the percentage of the 206 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. 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.
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The documents the field cites back to
Representative Filing
CA2953352A1 — Removal of non-condensing gas from steam chamber with co-injection of steam and convection-enhancing agent
FCCL PARTNERSHIP
Filed by FCCL Partnership, this record addresses a specific operational failure mode in SAGD: non-condensing gases accumulating in the steam chamber and degrading conformance. It claims injecting a convection-enhancing agent alongside steam through an injection well to promote gas convection and assist NCG removal, applicable to wells configurable as either injection or production.Abstract reproduced from the underlying filing; claim scope should be checked against the full document before relying on it.
View full filing →Most-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5215146A | Method for reducing startup time during a steam assisted gravity drainage process in parallel horizontal wells | 158 |
| 2 | GB2045298A | Impregnating a dry fibre batt | 59 |
| 3 | CA1304287C | Steaming process, involving a pair of horizontal wells, for use in heavy oil reservoir | 57 |
| 4 | US7556099B2 | Recovery process | 51 |
| 5 | US20070295499A1 | Recovery process | 43 |
| 6 | US20140166280A1 | Hydrocarbon recovery employing an injection well and a production well having multiple tubing strings with ac… | 42 |
| 7 | US20100282644A1 | Systems and Methods for Low Emission Hydrocarbon Recovery | 39 |
| 8 | US20150198022A1 | Oil recovery with fishbone wells and steam | 34 |
| 9 | US20090288827A1 | In Situ Thermal Process For Recovering Oil From Oil Sands | 32 |
| 10 | US20110288778A1 | Method for estimation of SAGD process characteristics | 30 |
Citation counts favour older records by construction — a searched corpus accumulates citations over time, so treat this list as a map of influence on subsequent filings, not a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the concentration and citation data mean for filing strategy
Three patterns in the data matter more than any single ranking: how tightly ownership concentrates, how citation weight distributes, and how thin the technology sits outside the core wellbore class.
Concentration
62.1% of 206
held by the top 5 assignees
Ownership is concentrated, not fragmented
Just five assignees hold 128 of the 206 records in scope. A new filer entering SAGD claim space is negotiating around a small set of established holders rather than a diffuse crowd of small filers, which changes both freedom-to-operate diligence and licensing strategy.
Based on the top-5 combined share of all records in scope.
Citation weight
158 citations
on the single most-cited record
Influence sits with a handful of foundational filings
The most-cited record in the set, on reducing startup time in parallel horizontal well SAGD, carries citation counts well above the rest of the list. That weight reflects age and foundational status in the corpus, not current filing activity — recent filings have not had time to accumulate citations yet.
Citation counts favour earlier-filed records; read as historical influence, not current relevance.
Class thinness
1.0%-1.9%
share for the smallest IPC classes touched
Adjacent classes are barely claimed
Fluid flow control, separation processes, chemical protection and filament spinning each touch four records or fewer out of 206. These are not dead ends; they are pockets where the core mechanical/drilling claims have not been extended into adjacent process engineering.
Class shares are computed against the 206-record total and can overlap, since a record may carry more than one class.
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Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to steam assisted gravity drainage, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who holds the SAGD claim space, and where it thins out
The ranked list covers 63 companies counted by records, led by a single assignee with 51 records; by fifth place that figure is already down to 11, and by tenth place to 6 — a steep drop that marks a genuine long tail rather than a gradual taper.
Leader
51 records
held by the top-ranked assignee
One filer dominates the ranking
The leading assignee's record count is more than four and a half times the fifth-place figure of 11, which is a wide gap even by concentrated-field standards. Diligence against this filer's portfolio should be a first step for anyone assessing freedom to operate in well-pair or subcool control claims.
Counted by patent family records in the assignee ranking.
Co-filing
7 shared records
in the strongest co-assignee pair
A small number of joint-development pairs exist
Ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, with the strongest pair sharing seven records. This points to specific joint-venture or partnership filing arrangements rather than a broadly collaborative field, consistent with the joint-venture structure common in Alberta oil sands operations.
Ten co-assignee pairs identified across the 206 records in scope.
Long tail
6 records
at the tenth-ranked position
The tail thins fast after the top ten
By the tenth position in the ranking, record counts have fallen to 6, and the ranking runs to 63 companies in total. Most of that list holds small, specific filings rather than broad portfolios, which is exactly where narrowly-drafted white-space claims tend to originate.
63 companies ranked in total, counted by records.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| ConocoPhillips | 0 | — |
| Cenovus Energy Inc. | 0 | — |
| Suncor Energy Inc. | 0 | — |
| Total E&P Canada | 0 | — |
| Nexen Energy ULC | 0 | — |
| Schlumberger Canada Limited | 0 | — |
| CONOCOPHILLIPS CANADA RESOURCES | 0 | — |
| Husky Oil Operations Limited | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated core and a thin periphery; the next steps depend on whether you are filing, licensing or defending.
Map freedom-to-operate against the top holders
With 62.1% of records held by five assignees, a claim-by-claim comparison against those portfolios should come before drafting any new subcool-control or steam-circulation claim.
Explore assignee portfolios in Eureka →Test white-space claims in thin classes
Fluid flow control and separation-process classes sit under 2% of records each; a narrowly drafted claim there faces far less prior art than a wellbore-configuration claim.
Run a white-space search in Eureka →Track the 2024 cut-off, not the partial years
Treat 2025-2026 filing counts as incomplete due to publication lag; re-run the trend once 2025 filings have had time to publish before drawing conclusions about a slowdown.
Set a filing-trend alert in Eureka →Source: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on SAGD patenting
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.
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.
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.
The classes with the thinnest coverage in this dataset — fluid flow control, separation processes, chemical protection and detox, and filament spinning — each touch four records or fewer out of 206. These are not necessarily unimportant; they are simply under-claimed relative to the dominant wellbore-configuration class, which suggests room for narrowly drafted claims on non-condensable gas separation, chamber conformance sensing, or slotted liner materials that have not yet been heavily litigated over in claim language.
CA2953352A1, assigned to FCCL Partnership, covers a method of removing non-condensing gases from a steam chamber by co-injecting a convection-enhancing agent with steam through an injection well. It addresses a specific operational problem — NCG accumulation degrading steam chamber conformance — rather than the broader well-pair configuration covered by earlier foundational patents. Anyone designing an NCG-management process for SAGD should check this claim scope directly, since it sits in a more specific, more recently filed layer of the patent landscape than the oldest, most-cited records in this set.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. 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.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.