Corrosion protection standards: Uzbekistan, CIS, ISO, USA, oil and gas

Corrosion protection standards: why they matter

Corrosion protection of steel and concrete structures is defined not by a brand of paint but by a set of requirements: the environment the structure works in, how many years the coating must last before the first maintenance, which system is to be used, how the surface is prepared and how the result is checked. On projects in Uzbekistan these requirements come from several systems of regulations at once: national building codes and interstate GOST standards, Russian codes of practice, international ISO standards, American AMPP and ASTM standards, and the in-house documents of oil and gas companies. This section brings together the key documents of each system, the logic behind them and how they relate to one another.

What a corrosion protection requirement consists of

Whichever system of regulations a project follows, a corrosion protection requirement is made up of the same elements. What differs is the classifications and the documents in which they are set out:

Element of the requirement International practice Uzbekistan and other CIS countries
Service environment Corrosivity categories C1–C5 and CX; Im1–Im4 for water and soil (ISO 12944-2) Degrees of aggressive exposure I–IV under ShNK 2.03.11-24; in Russia, under SP 28.13330.2017
Required service life Durability ranges of the coating system (ISO 12944-1) ShNK 2.03.11-24: protective measures are designed for a 50-year service life; for concrete and reinforced concrete with a 100-year service life and for structures of class KS-3 the aggressiveness assessment is raised by one degree
Protection system Guidance in ISO 12944-5, laboratory evidence to ISO 12944-6 or ISO 12944-9; NORSOK M-501 in oil and gas Primary, secondary and special protection, coating group and thickness under ShNK 2.03.11-24; coating groups and classes under GOST 35094-2024
Surface preparation ISO 8501 – ISO 8504; SSPC-SP and NACE in American practice GOST 9.402-2004
Execution of work ISO 12944-7, specification to ISO 12944-8 Construction Regulation QR 04.01-23; in Russia, SP 72.13330.2016
Inspection and acceptance ISO 19840, ISO 16276-1 and -2, ISO 29601; SSPC-PA 2, ASTM methods GOST 35271-2025, GOST 31149-2014, GOST 32299-2025; adhesion criteria in ShNK 2.03.11-24, work log and acceptance records under QR 04.01-23

Who decides what

  • The client sets the required service life of the coating before the first maintenance, the list of applicable standards and their order of precedence, and the requirements for the qualifications of the contractors and for as-built documentation. On large facilities this is a corporate painting specification.
  • The designer defines the service environment for each zone of the facility, the coating system with layer thicknesses, the surface preparation grade and the inspection and acceptance procedure. These decisions are recorded in the corrosion protection section of the design.
  • The standard provides terms, classifications and methods of preparation, testing and measurement. It does not choose a system for a specific facility: it sets the framework within which the designer makes the decision.
  • The materials manufacturer provides the technical data sheet: application conditions, overcoating intervals, permissible coat thicknesses and compatibility with the other coats of the system.
  • The contractor prepares the method statement and the inspection plan to meet the design requirements.
  • The inspector checks the requirements stage by stage and keeps the records on which the coating is accepted.

Disputes on site most often arise where these meet: the design cites a standard without a year and without acceptance criteria, the data sheet allows one thing and the client’s specification requires another. That is why it pays to bring all corrosion protection requirements together in one document — a specification or a section of the design — with a clear order of precedence.

How the different systems fit together

In Uzbekistan, since 28.02.2025 the design of corrosion protection of building structures has been governed by the urban planning norms ShNK 2.03.11-24 (ShNK — Urban Planning Norms and Rules), which replaced KMK 2.03.11-96, and the execution of the work by Construction Regulation QR 04.01-23. Test and inspection methods are taken from interstate GOST standards whose adoption Uzbekistan voted for — among them GOST 34667, the interstate version of ISO 12944. On projects with a foreign client, a specification based on ISO 12944, NORSOK M-501 or AMPP and ASTM standards is added on top.

The classifications do not match. ShNK 2.03.11-24 assesses the environment by four degrees of aggressive exposure, while ISO 12944-2 uses categories C1–CX and Im1–Im4, and the codes give no table for converting one into the other. One of the annexes of ShNK uses indices C1–C5 for metal structures, but this is the norms’ own classification, not the ISO categories. If a project is designed to both systems, the environment is justified in each of them, and the coating system has to satisfy both.

Steel and concrete: different documents

The ISO 12944 series covers steel structures only; its Part 8 allows its principles for drawing up specifications to be used for other substrates as well, including concrete. CIS codes cover concrete and steel in one document: ShNK 2.03.11-24 and SP 28.13330.2017 apply to concrete, reinforced concrete, steel and other structures, and for concrete ShNK introduces exposure classes XC, XS, XD, XF and XA. In Europe, surface protection of concrete by impregnation and coatings is covered by EN 1504-2:2004; in American practice, the preparation of concrete for coating is described in SSPC-SP 13/NACE No. 6 and inspection methods in ASTM standards. Where a coating on concrete or steel must resist chemicals, its resistance is confirmed not from general tables but through our questionnaire.

What to check in a corrosion protection specification

  • Which documents and editions the specification refers to. A reference to KMK 2.03.11-96 or GOST 9.032-74 is a sign that the document has not been updated for a long time; references to GOST 32299-2013, GOST 31993-2013 and GOST 15140-78 should also be checked against the new editions.
  • Whether the environment for each zone of the facility and the required service life are specified — under ShNK 2.03.11-24 or ISO 12944, rather than “by analogy”.
  • Whether the preparation grade, the roughness requirement and the methods for checking dust and salts, with limit values, are stated.
  • How thickness is accepted: the nominal thickness of each coat and of the system, the measurement method, the sampling plan and the criteria.
  • Which method and which value are used to check adhesion, and whether a continuity test is required and at what voltage.
  • Whether laboratory evidence for the system is required and to which document: ISO 12944-6, ISO 12944-9, NORSOK M-501.
  • What qualifications are required of the inspector and the contractor, and which documents are handed over at the end of the work.

Sections

Materials and coating systems are described in our corrosion protection guide, and fire resistance and fire protection regulations in the fire protection standards section.

The material in this section is for reference only. Before using it in a design, check the current edition of each document against official sources.

Need the requirements of the codes and the client’s specification brought together into one corrosion protection system? We will select the system, thicknesses and inspection procedure for your facility. Phone, WhatsApp, Telegram: +998 94 094 52 27. E-mail: info@ognezashita.uz.