Inflatable kill packers used in working over Kuwaiti wells

This paper reports on inflatable packers which are being used with great success in post-well capping workover operations in Kuwait oil fields. In mid-January, about one kill packer was being run per day. Use is expected to increase in March when a second post-capping crew arrives. Of several thousand unconventional ideas submitted to Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) for controlling the well fires left in the aftermath of lst year's Gulf War, only about a dozen were actually used. Inflatable kill packers, designed and manufactured by Baker Service Tools and marketed by Baker Oil Tools, were one of the ideas that proved effective. The kill packers are modifications of Baker's inflatable packers that have successfully been used in capping producers on many blowouts throughout the world, including the Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea and the Saga blowout offshore Norway