Arriving at the drilling site and finding out that essential systems don't operate according to specifications is unacceptable. Despite the fact that software issues cause equipment to malfunction, create health, safety and environmental (HSE) dangers, and bring operations to a halt, commissioning procedures have traditionally focused only on the functionality of the hardware. To avoid high rates of failure and non-productive time (NPT), software must be thoroughly exercised against all functional specifications during commissioning.

To help ensure that issues are found and corrected earlier – before they impact rig utilization, day rates, and time to first oil – Athens Group:

  • Provides a Real-Time Risk AssessmentSM Scorecard throughout the project to give all stakeholders insight into key risk levels so remediation efforts can be prioritized.
  • Reviews all applicable documents to extract all control systems functions that need to be tested
  • Compares individual and integrated control systems functions with commissioning plans to:
    • Identify gaps and weaknesses
    • Recommend improvements to individual and integrated commissioning and acceptance procedures
    • Create auxiliary test procedures when necessary
    • Update or create an integration test plan if required and possible
    • Conduct review and approval cycles
  • Helps plan and actively manages and participates in the commissioning and acceptance activities; tracks test accuracy and completion; prioritizes issues; and manages vendors and all issues on punch list to resolution.

How We're Different

  1. Athens Group’s Drilling Technology Assurance Consultants have a deep understanding of software quality best-practices and expertise with drilling equipment software, hardware, and network topology.
  2. We have worked with the majority of drilling equipment vendors, so we know the strengths and weaknesses of their methods, as well as how to improve their testing procedures.
  3. As an independent third party, we help reduce the finger-pointing that inevitably slows delivery and reduces the quality of your asset.

Failure Point Example *

A driller intended to press one button on his touchpad and accidentally pressed an adjacent button. There was no way for him to easily see that he had pressed the wrong button; but doing so caused the equipment to exit the riser handling mode. The driller’s intended action would have left the equipment in a safe condition, so the driller went onto the drill floor to talk to the crew. After a timeout period of thirty seconds or so, the tool unlocked and dropped the joint setting. A thorough Controls and Network Commissioning would have specified that the riser handling tool should not unlock while carrying a load.

* All Failure Points are issues we identified on multiple rigs on which we have worked