GREENLIGHT: A Flexible and Simple Digital Pressure Testing Solution

Since being unveiled in 2015, GREENLIGHT has been optimizing and enhancing the way pressure tests are conducted, analyzed and recorded. The digital pressure testing software suite, created by Offshore Technical Compliance (OTC) in partnership with Hecate Software, offers accuracy, efficiency and confidence that pressure tests pass BSEE specifications in one field-ready tool.

The goal was to assist clients by delivering an efficient, objective and cost-effective digital pressure testing solution; and many in the industry have responded by adding GREENLIGHT to their must-have list.

As the number of GREENLIGHT clients, operational personnel and systems active in the field have exponentially expanded in the past year, OTC and Hecate are still hard at work to ensure clients are highly satisfied with the tool. OTC and Hecate asked GREENLIGHT clients and users for their feedback on what features and functionality make their jobs easier. Two often-heard sentiments were flexibility and simplicity.

Flexible Across a Broad Range of Testing

“OTC clients often tell us that GREENLIGHT is very flexible across a broad range of testing needs,” said OTC CEO Mike Bethea. “Since receiving BSEE approval in 2015, GREENLIGHT has been used extensively during drilling operations for subsea and stump testing of BOP’s, as well as in plug-and-abandonment operations and intervention work.”

The flexibility that GREENLIGHT offers to manage a broad range of testing scenarios is due to its software and hardware design, said Hecate CEO Eric Livesay.

A key part of GREENLIGHT’s flexibility comes from its analysts, code that is designed to handle a specific type of testing. For example, the job of the low-pressure analyst is to determine if measured pressures fall within appropriate limits for a set amount of time. Until recently those limits were 200 psi and 300 psi for 5 minutes (i.e., 30 CFR 250.448). Last year, this pressure range was changed to 250 psi to 350 psi (i.e., 30 CFR 250.737), he said.

“To accommodate this change, GREENLIGHT’s low-pressure analyst simply had to be reconfigured, a process that took minutes – not rewritten and replaced,” Livesay said.

This is just one example of the type of flexibility provided throughout the software suite, which has simplified and encouraged the process of expanding the use of GREENLIGHT beyond traditional subsea BOP testing – including reducing the time required to perform coiled tubing tests to about 10 minutes.

GREENLIGHT hardware also offers flexibility in how clients receive testing data, which has enabled GREENLIGHT systems to successfully operate in varied environments to support both deepwater and on-the-shelf operations.

For some operations, receiving testing data from an external computer – for example the computer monitoring the transducer on the cement pumps operated by a service provider – or from a transducer that is part of the GREENLIGHT mobile system.  Both data transmission options produce an uninterrupted, secure and fully transparent digital record of all testing activity from start to finish while providing real-time, high-definition digital output and time savings for our clients.

Ease-of-use Essential to Success

Simplicity and ease-of-use are also common refrains we hear from clients – and an important part of how GREENLIGHT saves our clients time and inspires confidence that pressure testing requirements are in order.

With so much already incorporated into GREENLIGHT in one flexible and simple-to-use system, what else could be added? OTC and Hecate asked GREENLIGHT users and customers just that. Armed with their insights, a wealth of data and a refined design-and-development process for improvement, GREENLIGHT continues to offer more features and functions that quickly have become invaluable tools for clients.

“We continue to find ways to simplify the GREENLIGHT user interface while adding more functionality,” said Livesay. “The successful integration of new features is ultimately a reflection of the synergy between Hecate and OTC.”

While the OTC team brings from-the-field testing and compliance experience, Hecate’s team is focused on the latest software development tools and techniques – and leveraging the fact that most Hecate employees have also spent time on offshore oil and gas facilities.

“With both teams speaking the same language – and understanding what GREENLIGHT technicians see in daily field operations, our full support team is uniquely positioned to hyper focus on what our clients need and want for specific projects, in addition to changing regulations and what clients may need tomorrow,” said Bethea. “It’s the future that we keep a watchful eye on; to ensure GREENLIGHT is not just a must-have software suite today but as the industry changes, too.”