The hardest environment to build technology for isn't Silicon Valley ... . It's 100 miles offshore
There’s a version of tech innovation that happens in climate-controlled offices, with unlimited compute, fast iteration cycles, and the luxury of failure.
That’s not where we build.
At OTC, our technology gets deployed on drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, and deepwater operations across the globe. The environment is corrosive. The connectivity is limited. The stakes are existential. And the regulators aren’t impressed by a good pitch deck.
When your software is responsible for determining whether a blowout preventer passes or fails a pressure test — equipment that stands between a functioning well and a catastrophic loss of well control — there is no “ship it and patch it later.”
You get it right. Or you don’t get another chance.
That crucible is where OTC has been building for nearly 20 years. And the people doing the building aren’t typical oil and gas software developers.
Meet the team behind GreenLight
Dr. Brian LaMarche holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Washington State University, earned while simultaneously working at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory — one of America’s leading centers for scientific discovery in data analytics, chemistry, Earth science, and sustainable energy innovation. Brian joined the GreenLight development effort in 2014 and has been instrumental in software design, hardware integration, and algorithm development ever since. He also led development of additional subsea leak detection systems and casing integrity verification software. When he isn’t solving hard problems for OTC, he’s an Adjunct Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department at WSU-Richland. His expertise spans custom software design, artificial intelligence, digital twinning, and team management — built over 25 years.
Dr. Eric Livesay holds a Ph.D. in Physics — also a former Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientist — and was integral to the team that developed the industry’s first predictive digital pressure testing software. Eric also developed the high-fidelity subsea leak detection system at the core of our ARGUS platform. Today he leads a team building real-time calculations and predictions for other sensitive oil and gas processes. Like Brian, his expertise runs 25 years deep — custom algorithms, software design, programming, and team management.
Two PhDs. One in computer science. One in physics. Both forged at one of America’s premier national laboratories. Both spending the better part of two decades solving problems that most software engineers will never encounter.
This is not a typical compliance company’s technology team
It started with Anatomize — the first digital pressure testing software ever approved by a regulator, implemented offshore for BP in 2008 when the MMS was still the governing authority in the Gulf. It evolved through our commercial partnership with Hecate Software beginning in 2015, which brought GreenLight to market. It culminated in our 2023 merger with Hecate, consolidating two decades of digital development experience — and the scientists behind it — under one roof.
Today the GreenLight suite — including Blueprint, Atlas, Leaflet, and our pipeline leak detection system ARGUS — represents something rare in the energy sector:
Digital technology designed, built, and validated by research scientists in the most unforgiving operating environment on earth
GreenLight is the only digital pressure testing system to hold DNV RP A203 Technical Qualification. That qualification wasn’t awarded because we have good engineers. It was awarded because Dr. LaMarche, Dr. Livesay, and their team proved — to an independent world-class risk management organization — that our technology performs exactly as claimed under real operating conditions.
That capability — building mission-critical digital tools for an industry where failure is measured in human lives, environmental damage, and regulatory consequence — is not a narrow skillset.
It is exactly the kind of capability the broader energy sector needs as it digitizes, decarbonizes, and navigates one of the most complex technology transitions in its history.
OTC’s next chapter is about more than compliance services and pressure testing software.
We are a digital technology development company — staffed by research scientists, built on 20 years of hard-environment innovation — that happens to have started in offshore oil and gas compliance.
The team that built GreenLight can build what the energy sector needs next.
We’re just getting started.
Michael Bethea is CEO of Offshore Technical Compliance LLC (OTC), developers of the GreenLight digital pressure testing suite and provider of compliance services to the global oil and gas industry. Learn more at otcompliance.com.
