**5. Discussion**

provided by the technologies belonging to the IPC groups listed in **Table 3**. As an illustration of this interpretation, Hu et al. [2] stress that the technologies belonging to E21B 1 "Percussion drilling (drives used in the borehole)" are suitable to explore onshore oil reserves with very

**Description Number of patent** 

E21B 43 Methods or apparatus for obtaining oil, gas, water, soluble or meltable materials,

or a slurry of minerals from wells (applicable only to water; obtaining oil-bearing deposits or soluble or meltable materials by mining techniques; pumps)

E21B 33 Sealing or packing boreholes or wells 707 E21B 17 Drilling rods or pipes, flexible drill strings, kellies, drill collars, sucker rods, casings,

E21B 47 Survey of boreholes or wells (monitoring pressure or flow of drilling fluid) 465

motor (freeing objects stuck in boreholes by flushing, well-drilling compositions)

E21B 34 Valve arrangements for boreholes or wells (in drilling fluid circulation systems, blowout preventers, oil flow-regulating apparatus, valves in general)

E21B 19 Handling rods, casings, tubes, or the like outside the borehole, e.g., in the derrick;

E21B 21 Methods or apparatus for flushing boreholes, e.g., by the use of exhaust air from

E21B 7 Special methods or apparatus for drilling (supports for the drilling machine, e.g.,

E21B 49 Testing the nature of borehole walls, formation testing, methods or apparatus for

E21B 10 Drill bits (specially adapted for deflecting the direction of boring, with means for

E21B 23 Apparatus for displacing, setting, locking, releasing, or removing tools, packers, or

E21B 44 Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e., self-

E21B 41 Equipment or details not covered by groups 97

operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g., computer-controlled drilling

E21B 37 Methods or apparatus for cleaning boreholes or wells 68 E21B 29 Cutting or destroying pipes, packers, plugs, or wire lines, located in boreholes or wells, e.g., cutting of damaged pipes and of windows (perforators)

E21B 36 Heating, cooling, or insulating arrangements for boreholes or wells, e.g., for use in permafrost zones (drilling by the use of heat, secondary recovery methods using

apparatus for feeding the rods or cables (surface drives)

**applications**

1080

486

282

281

225

197

191

187

152

77

63

49

Consequently, given the particular conditions of the Brazilian oil reserves, only five patent applications were filed in Brazil between 2001 and 2012 related to percussion drilling. Our interpretation is that the less protected technologies within the E21B group result from the fact that these technologies are to some extent inadequate to be deployed in the Brazilian

small depths, as opposed to the offshore ultra-deep pre-salt conditions.

**Table 2.** Most protected upstream oil and gas technologies in Brazil.

**IPC groups**

10 Drilling

tubings

derricks or masts)

collecting substances)

systems

heat)

Source: the authors

the like in boreholes or wells

obtaining samples of soil or well fluids

The effective management of a patent portfolio is an increasingly complex challenge in our current knowledge-based society, especially for firms with a large number of patent applications. As such, using patent information as secondary data, we have provided rich insights regarding the specific technical interest of technology-based firms operating in the Brazilian upstream oil and gas industry [20]. More specifically, we have employed patent application figures as a performance indicator representing technological hotspots [35]. To this end, we have explored a large number of patent documents by carrying out pattern analysis to identify relevant business insights (Madani and Weber [51]).

Our detailed examination of the E21B subclass has shown evidence of substantial differences in terms of the commercial potential of different types of upstream oil and gas technologies in the context of the Brazilian market. In addition, the findings on the robust growth of patent filings regarding upstream oil and gas technologies have provided evidence of a growing interest of firms operating in this particular industry in developing technical solutions to address specific operational challenges associated with the pre-salt exploration [9].

**6. Conclusion**

**Author details**

Gabriel Cavalheiro<sup>1</sup>

**References**

2 SENAC, Rio de Janiero, Brazil

2012;**40**:318-324

Policy. 2015;**79**:9-22

Energy Policy. 2014;**74**:443-453

181-189

105-113

\*, Mariana Brandao<sup>2</sup>

\*Address all correspondence to: gabrielmarcuzzo@id.uff.br 1 Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Niterói, Brazil

Exploration and Development. 2013;**40**(4):439-443

This study provides further evidence of the value of exploring patent information. By exploring a sample of patent data related to upstream oil and gas technologies protected by different players in Brazil, valuable patterns were revealed. In practice, we have observed that the value of patent information goes beyond its role as a source of technical information by revealing insights of the attractiveness of certain technologies in a country. Evidence was also found that rival firms in the upstream oil and gas industry attempted to increase their competitiveness by reinforcing their patent portfolio with strategic technologies comprising high potential market value. Additionally, we believe that the paper is also valuable for readers without technical knowledge of upstream oil and gas technologies, as our study reveals patterns related to the relationship between market demand for technologies and the strategic use of patents.

Proposing a Patent Information Approach for Identifying Technological Trends in the Brazilian…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75377

13

and Saulo Rocha<sup>1</sup>

[1] Coleman L. Explaining crude oil prices using fundamental measures. Energy Policy.

[2] Hu W, Bao J, Hu B. Trend and progress in global oil and gas exploration. Petroleum

[3] Brown SPA, Huntington HG. Evaluating U.S. oil security and import reliance. Energy

[4] Shafiee S, Topal E. When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished? Energy Policy. 2009;**37**(1):

[5] Hayashi SHD, Ligero EL, Schiozer DJ. Risk mitigation in petroleum field development by modular implantation. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. 2010;**75**(1-2):

[6] Mendes PAS, Hall J, Matos S, Silvestre B. Reforming Brazil's offshore oil and gas safety regulatory framework: Lessons from Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.

As mentioned above, it is possible to determine that within the scope of the E21B subclass, there are technologies that received greater attention from firms in the oil and gas industry, motivating more patent applications to protect inventions belonging to a small set of technical areas [39]. Clearly, we have identified a small number of highly active technical subareas that represent key technologies. However, the findings also point to several IPC classifications that comprise upstream oil and gas technologies, but did not motivate a growing number of patent applications. This was due to the existence of areas containing technologies not suitable to the Brazilian operational context of the pre-salt but also due to obsolete technologies that are not motivating patent applications anymore [26].

In practice, it was possible to identify technological hotspots within upstream oil and gas technologies [31]. Clearly, the technical subareas attracting the largest number of patent applications concern technologies designed to build and maintain wells, as well as technologies dedicated to increase productivity of existing wells. This can be seen as a strong evidence that operating companies are interested in improving technologies for building wells as maximizing production from oil formations. However, the findings also point out to that there are several technical areas attracting modest industry attention in a pre-salt context, such as percussion drilling, measuring the drilling time, preventing or extinguishing fires downhole in offshore conditions, and automatically arresting the fall of oil-well tubing.

The use of patent application figures helps us to claim that that the particular characteristics of the Brazilian pre-salt reservoirs generated specific perceptions of potential market demand for different technical areas. The concentration of patent applications in certain IPC groups, such as E21B 43 and E21B 33, highlights the value of these patents for business (Madani and Weber [51]). In fact, these patents can be perceived as instruments providing exclusive rights to commercialize critical technologies in an emerging and large-scale market. This way of perceiving decision-making regarding patenting leads us to the importance of highlighting the need to protect technologies that are perceived as strategic and generate expectations of high revenue potential in the coming years.

Thus, our research has revealed that despite the tremendous growth in patent applications concerning upstream oil and gas technologies in Brazil from 2007 onward, only a small set of very specific technical areas encompassed the wide majority of the patent applications. As such, this study contributed to the value of patent application figures as a robust performance indicator for monitoring competitive technology development efforts in the upstream oil and gas industry of a developing country.
