Hydrostatic Pressure Testing

Hydrostatic pressure testing remains an industry standard pre-commissioning and commissioning practice that is a heavily regulated requirement for all branches of the oil and gas industry. As important, hydro testing is also one of the only methods available for crack assessments allowed by PHMSA regulations.

BlueFin incorporates the best-controlled pressure equipment, the latest monitoring technology, and a strong bench of personnel talent combined with project history to deliver safe and successful hydrostatic pressure testing projects. Our team has the capabilities to plan and conduct all aspects of hydrostatic testing.

Our Services

Advantages of Using BlueFin

  • Electronic monitoring

  • Procedural execution

  • Project closure reports

  • On-staff professional engineering with extensive experience in the field and in the office

Read more about our Hydrostatic Pressure Testing Services below:

Onshore Hydrostatic Pressure Testing Services

Water Management

BlueFin can help identify and plan water acquisition, storage, filtration, treatment, disposal, temporary piping, pumping, and movement

Cleaning

BlueFin has a wide array of chemical cleaning options.

Leak Detection

BlueFin can assist with determining and using leak detection options for facilities or pipelines.

Testing

BlueFin is fully equipped with pumps, instrumentation, and testing equipment to complete a wide array of testing projects.

Planning

BlueFin has experience in planning complete testing projects from purging, water fill, testing, drying, and recommissioning. We can help with:

  • Water management, acquisition, treatment, and disposal

  • Section breaks and pressure requirements

  • Test procedures, documentation, and test acceptance specifications

  • Equipment needs, scheduling, and cost estimating

Documentation & Analysis

Test results are thoroughly documented to industry regulatory requirements and your specifications. Engineering analysis and test certification are available.

Flooding & Dewatering

Proper back pressure control and pig selection during line fill and dewatering are important tasks routinely overlooked by most contractors. BlueFin understands how to properly manage water movement in order to minimize air entrapment in the test water and avoid column separation which can lead to air lock.

Drying

Dependent upon the end-use, pipeline assets demand specified dew point and penetration parameters that will ready the system for the intended hydrocarbon product.

Solutions for

  • New Construction

  • Pipeline Reinstatements

  • Pipeline Reclassifications

  • Pipeline Repairs

  • Dew Point Achievement

  • Moisture Penetration Achievement

  • Short Duration Test

  • Long Duration Test

  • Electronic Data Acquisition

  • Standard Deadweight Data Acquisition

  • Hydrostatic Pressure Testing

  • Pneumatic Pressure Testing

Applications

  • Pipelines

  • Industries: Plants, Petrochemical, LNG, NGL

  • Maintenance and Turnarounds

  • Facility Upgrades and Expansions

  • New Construction

Offshore Hydrostatic Pressure Testing Services

Water Flooding

BlueFin can provide various subsea filtration options down to 5 microns, including free flooding as well as forced flooding via various downline options. BlueFin can also employ an accurate subsea chemical injection campaign during free flooding. BlueFin owns a range of high volume centrifugal and high pressure positive displacement pumps to satisfy client needs.

Subsea Pipeline / Flowline Cleaning

BlueFin has extensive experience with gel pigging, progressive pigging, and paraffin and hydrate remediation. The BlueFin toolbox also contains technological gems like Lancing tools, The BlueDog™ Tool, and the EelReel tool with proven results.

Water Treatment

BlueFin provides services to remove contaminants, including oil and grease, solids handling utilizing gravity separation and media filtration, and also water quality testing.

Topside System Services

BlueFin can safely and accurately perform helium tracer leak testing, pneumatic testing, Nitrogen soapy bubble testing, tubing testing, chemical flushing, and joint integrity, including bolting and tensioning services.

Subsea Leak Detection

BlueFin can assist with determining and using leak detection options for facilities or pipelines.

Testing

BlueFin is fully equipped with pumps, instrumentation, and testing equipment to complete a wide array of testing projects - subsea pressurization via various downline options.

  • Helium Leak Testing

  • Tensioner Testing/Stroking/Commissioning

  • Soapy Bubble Testing

  • Pneumatic Strength Testing

Planning

BlueFin has experience in planning complete testing projects from purging, water fill, testing, drying, and recommissioning. We can help with:

  • Water management, acquisition, treatment, and disposal

  • Section breaks and pressure requirements

  • Test procedures, documentation, and test acceptance specifications

  • Equipment needs, scheduling, and cost estimating

  • Remediation, flow assurance, system identification for topsides testing

  • Full pre-commissioning and de-commissioning project management and degreed/professional engineering services

Documentation & Analysis

Viking and BlueFin employs flow assurance experts with substantial knowledge in data acquisition and pipeline mapping through surveillance pigging.

Dewatering

BlueFin provides vessel based and platform based cryogenic and membrane nitrogen services to pig and dewater pipelines. Air compression is also sometimes used to dewater a pipeline with a pig train as long as there are no chemicals in the line able to combust over the parameters of the provide.

Drying

BlueFin has many times over propelled pig trains while injecting chemical drying agents (MEG, methanol, and LDSI) to meet industry specifications for a dry line ultimately preventing hydrate formation when bringing wells on line.

Solutions for

  • New Construction

  • Pipeline Reinstatements

  • Pipeline Reclassifications

  • Pipeline Repairs

  • Dew Point Achievement

  • Moisture Penetration Achievement

Applications

  • Pipelines

  • Flowlines

  • Offshore Risers

  • Production Barges

  • Offshore Platforms

  • MOPU’s

  • Drill Ships

  • FSPO’s

Consult Our Specialist

Featured
Crystal Yoes
Crystal Yoes

President of BlueFin Pipeline, Process and Industrial Services

Responsible for the strategic vision of the BlueFin Pipeline, Process and Industrial field services business unit.

Phone: 337.551.6975

Connect on LinkedIn

Related Resources

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Hydrostatic Pressure Testing
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Related Project Experience

Project Successes
In-Service Gas Pipeline Requires Cleaning & Integrity Assessment

A midstream operator sought flow assurance and integrity services for a gas pipeline with blockage concerns. The unknown location and makeup of the pipeline restriction prevented the operator from performing routine pigging operations. In order to remain compliant with current regulatory standards, a sound remediation method that targeted the blockage area was required in order to successfully plan and execute a hydrostatic pressure test.

LiquiGel® Pig Offers Safe DeWatering Method For Multi-Diameter Subsea Application

A Gulf of Mexico operator required a safe method to dewater a subsea pipeline upon a recent integrity test. Previous attempts to dewater the pipeline of the hydrotest medium with a foam pig proved unsuccessful. Importantly, the said pipeline was documented to contain heavy paraffin accumulation. Furthermore, the pipeline asset required an application that could mitigate the multi-diameter profile while assuring the client of a complete dewatering task. BlueFin’s casted SoliGel pig was designed to travel throughout the different pipeline diameters while mitigating flow assurance challenges and using production gas as the propelling medium.

Turnkey Solutions 225 Miles of 24” NGL Pipeline

A midstream contractor required competent, turnkey commissioning solutions in order to meet an established start-up date. The project consisted of 225 miles of 24 inch NGL pipeline in West Texas. Knowledge of pipeline integrity parameters, SIMOPS scheduling, logistical resources, and proven field personnel were critical to project award approval.

126-Mile In-Service Crude Oil Pipeline Integrity Test

A pipeline operator required a full line hydrostatic test of a 22-inch crude oil pipeline. The line would be tested in 4 segments. During initial line fill, the pig got hung up and bypassed nearly the entire line fill volume. Once the decision to move forward was made, BlueFin sourced equipment and refilled the line with an alternative water source within 3 days. One segment failed initial test. After repairs, all four segments were successfully tested using electronic data to justify pressure changes.

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