E21B
Earth or rock drilling
Official title: Earth or rock drilling; obtaining oil, gas, water, soluble or meltable materials or a slurry of minerals from wells
E21B (Earth or rock drilling) appears on 88,192 US grants and 78,283 published applications in this corpus.
Search patents in E21B- Granted patents
- 88,192
- Published applications
- 78,283
- Assignees
- 13,182
- Inventors
- 84,433
- Latest grant
- 6 Oct 2026
Filings by year
| Year | Granted patents | Published applications |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 789 | 0 |
| 1977 | 744 | 0 |
| 1978 | 799 | 0 |
| 1979 | 531 | 0 |
| 1980 | 741 | 0 |
| 1981 | 917 | 0 |
| 1982 | 710 | 0 |
| 1983 | 866 | 0 |
| 1984 | 1139 | 0 |
| 1985 | 1051 | 0 |
| 1986 | 1005 | 0 |
| 1987 | 1143 | 0 |
| 1988 | 881 | 0 |
| 1989 | 1051 | 0 |
| 1990 | 862 | 0 |
| 1991 | 918 | 0 |
| 1992 | 942 | 0 |
| 1993 | 911 | 0 |
| 1994 | 1029 | 0 |
| 1995 | 831 | 0 |
| 1996 | 754 | 0 |
| 1997 | 651 | 0 |
| 1998 | 905 | 0 |
| 1999 | 984 | 0 |
| 2000 | 1128 | 0 |
| 2001 | 1286 | 297 |
| 2002 | 1165 | 1174 |
| 2003 | 1153 | 1421 |
| 2004 | 1170 | 1743 |
| 2005 | 1011 | 1708 |
| 2006 | 1344 | 1642 |
| 2007 | 1241 | 1771 |
| 2008 | 1251 | 2120 |
| 2009 | 1239 | 2437 |
| 2010 | 1862 | 2783 |
| 2011 | 1708 | 2882 |
| 2012 | 1977 | 3001 |
| 2013 | 2223 | 3585 |
| 2014 | 2594 | 4132 |
| 2015 | 3007 | 4473 |
| 2016 | 3213 | 4822 |
| 2017 | 3592 | 4451 |
| 2018 | 3948 | 4511 |
| 2019 | 4788 | 4301 |
| 2020 | 4472 | 4165 |
| 2021 | 4117 | 4361 |
| 2022 | 3925 | 3798 |
| 2023 | 3900 | 3593 |
| 2024 | 3775 | 3659 |
| 2025 | 3557 | 3212 |
| 2026 | 2392 | 2241 |
By publication year. Applications have been published since 2001. 2026 runs to 8 Oct.
Main groups
Granted patents with any code in the group
- E21B 43/00Methods or apparatus for obtaining oil, gas, water, soluble or meltable materials28,681
- E21B 47/00Survey of boreholes or wells17,507
- E21B 33/00Sealing or packing boreholes or wells16,570
- E21B 17/00Drilling rods or pipes12,245
- E21B 7/00Special methods or apparatus for drilling9,111
- E21B 34/00Valve arrangements for boreholes or wells8,883
- E21B 21/00Methods or apparatus for flushing boreholes7,389
- E21B 49/00Testing the nature of borehole walls7,385
All 31 main groupsShow fewer
- E21B 10/00Drill bits7,149
- E21B 23/00Apparatus for displacing, setting, locking, releasing or removing tools, packers or the7,111
- E21B 41/00Equipment or details not covered by groups e21b15/00 - e21b40/007,026
- E21B 19/00Handling rods, casings, tubes or the like outside the borehole6,519
- E21B 2200/00Special features related to earth drilling for obtaining oil, gas or waterIndexing code6,420
- E21B 44/00Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which3,420
- E21B 4/00Drives for drilling, used in the borehole3,004
- E21B 29/00Cutting or destroying pipes, packers, plugs or wire lines, located in boreholes2,571
- E21B 37/00Methods or apparatus for cleaning boreholes or wells2,320
- E21B 36/00Heating, cooling or insulating arrangements for boreholes or wells1,958
- E21B 31/00Fishing for or freeing objects in boreholes or wells1,484
- E21B 15/00Supports for the drilling machine1,142
- E21B 3/00Rotary drilling1,105
- E21B 25/00Apparatus for obtaining or removing undisturbed cores813
- E21B 27/00Containers for collecting or depositing substances in boreholes or wells569
- E21B 28/00Vibration generating arrangements for boreholes or wells476
- E21B 12/00Accessories for drilling tools447
- E21B 45/00Measuring the drilling time or rate of penetration363
- E21B 6/00Drives for drilling with combined rotary and percussive action257
- E21B 1/00Percussion drilling234
- E21B 11/00Earth or rock drilling: other drilling tools170
- E21B 35/00Methods or apparatus for preventing or extinguishing fires109
- E21B 40/00Tubing catchers, automatically arresting the fall of oil-well tubing48
Recent patents
- Direct high pressure slurry injection fracturing system and method6 Oct 2026US 12,752,247 B1
- Contaminant remediation with functionalized (meth)acrylic polymer or copolymer macroparticulates and systems related thereto6 Oct 2026US 12,753,257 B2Countertrace LLC
- Blend of polyarylether ketone copolymer6 Oct 2026US 12,753,305 B2Syensqo Specialty Polymers USA, LLC
- Method of improving injection pressure and asphaltene remediation6 Oct 2026US 12,753,337 B2
- Methods of treating unconsolidated sand formations using a red mud sealant composition6 Oct 2026US 12,753,339 B2Saudi Arabian Oil Company
- Drilling mud and method of making drilling mud having an unrefined petroleum product8 Oct 2026US 2026/0308439 A14 Oaks Solutions LLC
- Apparatus utilizing shape-memory and self-assembly to plug relatively wide remote fractures8 Oct 2026US 2026/0308440 A1The Penn State Research Foundation
- Formation Maintenance Fluids with Flowback Enhancers to Improve Wellbore Operations8 Oct 2026US 2026/0308442 A1Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations LLC
- Method and apparatus for confining the spread of pollutants spilled into a moving fluid8 Oct 2026US 2026/0308859 A1
- Virtual brake system8 Oct 2026US 2026/0308980 A1The Charles Machine Works, Inc.
Most cited
By later US patents
- Flexible drill pipe1,497US 4,328,839 ADrilling Development, Inc. · 1982
- Flexible drill pipe1,412US 4,600,037 ATexas Eastern Drilling Systems, Inc. · 1986
- Controlling hydrocarbon production609US 10,677,035 B2Saudi Arabian Oil Company · 2020
- Method of completing an uncased section of a borehole576US 5,366,012 AShell Oil Company · 1994
- Method and a plant for transport of hydrocarbons over a long distance from an offshore source of hydrocarbons555US 4,991,614 AKvaerner Engineering A.S. · 1991