Consolidated technologies, ongoing innovations and technologies introduced to the international market: a case study

The aim of this research is to understand the technological trajectory of the case study of Shale gas production. As a unit of analysis and measurement, we used the international classification of patents for inventions related to the topic retrieved from three different international databases. First the study analyzes consolidated technologies considered as granted patents, then the ongoing innovations identified as patent applications, and last the technologies introduced to the international marketgranted through the Patent Cooperation Treaty. According to the methodology, the frequency and relational indicators were applied to the unit under study. The results obtained describe the technological behavior of the domain. This technique allowed identifying the subject areas involved in the geophysical processes of oil and Shale-gas production related to the use of digital computing systems through the study of patent classifications.