Spring-based company receives heating system patent for oil and gas wells

A Spring-based company has received a U.S. patent for an invention that could make it easier to control the flow of oil and natural gas from wells.

Well operators sometimes wish to heat the materials they are recovering underground in order to improve their flow to the surface and eliminate certain obstructions. In the patent, the inventors describe an apparatus for accomplishing this that they say is more energy-efficient and effective than previously existing methods.

Both of the Houston inventors named in the patent, Ronald Elrick Pankratz and Leonid "Lenny" Kuslitsky, live in the Memorial area. The other two inventors, Andrey "Andrew" Bratushkin and Leonid Leshchenyuk, are based in St. Petersburg, Russia. The patent's official number is 7,891,416. It was originally filed on August 19, 2008, and officially approved on Feb. 22 of this year. The filers were represented by attorneys Jackson Walker LLP, whose Houston offices are located at 1401 McKinney St., Suite 1900. The owner of the patent is listed as the Spring offices of AMP-Lift Group LLC.