This recommended practice provides owner-operators with practices for developing, implementing, sustaining, and enhancing an investigation program for pressure equipment integrity (PEI) incidents. This document describes characteristics of how an effective investigation could be structured so organizations can learn from PEI failures, near-misses, or discoveries.

This RP is not intended to define or supplement criteria for compliance with regulatory requirements for which companies already have defined investigation processes in place. Rather, it provides a specific focus on investigating PEI failures as well as near misses or discoveries that are precursors to potential failures that could have significant impact on safety, health, and environment. As such, this RP can add value to process safety incidents/issue investigations by helping to focus specific investigative techniques that would enhance learning and enhance value from PEI incidents.