In the United States, federal regulations require that jurisdictional pipelines for which the
threat of internal corrosion exists be assessed by in-line inspection (ILI), hydrostatic pressure
testing, Internal Corrosion Direct Assessment (ICDA) or another method to assure their
integrity. Removing the threat of internal corrosion can be justified if sufficient historical data on
gas quality, monitoring, and/or inspection exists. A need therefore exists for a technically
defensible and systematic process by which the internal corrosion threat can be determined.
This paper describes a standard approach to organizing, integrating and analyzing data to
identify whether internal corrosion is a threat for a given pipeline segment. A case study
illustrating the implementation of the approach is also provided.
Key Words: Threat assessment, internal corrosion, data integration, direct evidence,
pipelines, indirect data.