SPE Lecture: An Introduction to Inflatable Packers

Inflatable packers are the least common and most diverse of the three types of oilfield “packing” technology that you are likely to come across.  The basic technology has been around in oilfield for nearly 80  years and can be found in open and cased hole situations, in workover / intervention, in decommissioning and abandonment and even in some surface applications.  It is not the easiest down hole technology to master and there are, globally, different versions of it, several main applications and some very common challenges and potential pitfalls in their use.  Perth is the centre for one of the worlds few inflatable packer manufacturing specialists, who manufacture for the global market.  The presentation will cover an introduction to this technology type with examples of some of the main applications, such as external casing packers, the various types of plug, some straddle applications ( that’s pairs of packers) for hydraulic fracturing and other “test or treat” applications,  plus some of the more unusual and novel customised applications.

Speaker:  Francis Ford, Inflatable Packers International (IPI) 

Francis Ford is Inflatable Packers International’s (“IPI”) R&D Manager.  He started with IPI as an apprentice from school in 2005 and has run inflatable packers all over the world in various mining and oil and gas locations since then, including many new or custom made tools.  For the past five years he has formally been IPI’s R&D Manager and has played a leading role in designing many of IPI’s versions of the tools covered in the presentation, plus a key role in evolving the company’s uncommon inflatable packer core technology.