API 510 Acceptance Table

Editor’s Note:

Process facility operators often must adhere to certain laws, rules, and/or policies to operate their assets safely and reliability.  These laws and policies vary from company to company and from one government jurisdiction to another.  Typically, corporate policies will mandate adherence to governmental regulations and may supply additional company policies (best practices, methodologies, etc.) to further enhance the safety and/or business result.  Government jurisdictional rules may vary from country to country (or any part thereof), perhaps state to state, county to county, and even city to city.

Often times, where chemical processing businesses are owned in part or whole by the country, the rules may be mandated by a state/country owned business entity, wherein the rules should represent what that country feels is representative of best practices.  This may vary based upon the degree of commonality of shared principles and the level of central authority and communication between that country and its businesses.

Jurisdictions or companies will often refer to certain codes and standards as applicable, and then add additional controls or caveats around those codes.  For example, some jurisdictions accept the use of Risked Based Inspection per API RP 580 for establishing inspection strategies, with additional rules imposed such as a maximum frequency of 15 years without performing an actual internal inspection, as appropriate.

For readers who are interested in jurisdictional acceptance of the API inspection codes for pressure vessels, piping and storage tanks, we present the following update from Mr. Phil Smith.  This picture is like a moving landscape.  We have done our best to provide up-to-date information, but we urge all readers to verify the information contained herein with the appropriate state, city, province and territory authorities before proceeding.  If you see something that has changed or is inaccurate now, please let us know so we can make the appropriate corrections.  Similarly, if you would like to share certain rules and regulations from your part of the world, please send us a note with all of the pertinent information.  You can submit any questions or comments by visiting https://inspectioneering.com/contact and filling out the general feedback form.

Please let us know if this type of information is helpful.  If so, we will provide similar information covering jurisdictional acceptance of additional API piping and storage tank inspection codes in future issues of Inspectioneering Journal.

Sincerely,

Greg Alvarado
Chief Editor

The rules and regulations applying to U.S states, cities and Canadian provinces and territories concerning piping, pressure vessel and storage tank inspection can be described as "a coat of many colors," and are meant to represent continuous improvement over time.  This table provides some information that will hopefully be useful to you regarding the level of acceptance of the API 510, Pressure Vessel Inspection Code: In-Service Inspection, Rating, Repair and Alteration, by the state, city, province and territorial authorities.