Aberdeen-based energy service firm LR Senergy said yesterday it has secured US and UK patents for a well modelling process it developed.
The two six-year patents protect LS Senergy’s Wellscope product, which uses computational fluid dynamics to map out pore spaces in wells.
The data can then be used in the design of wellbores with a view to production.
Co-inventor Michael Byrne, global technical head of formation damage at LR Senergy, said getting protection for technology of that ilk has been difficult in the past, but that LR Senergy managed to get over the line by conveying the innovative value of Wellscope.
He said: “When we initially set out to patent the technique we describe under the Wellscope name, we faced considerable scepticism about our ability to protect a process.
“There were numerous challenges in presenting a technical process in legal language but we eventually got there.”
“The decision to grant this patent in the UK sets some level of legal precedence and changes the way in which examiners approach these issues in the future.”
LR Senergy employs more than 600 talented staff members across its bases in the UK, the US, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.