There are many material standards, specifications and procedures for selecting and testing materials for use in sour serviee. The majority concentrate on small scale samples, and base material properties. These type of tests ean be miss-leading, as it is assumed that the measured properties from seleeted samples of a pipeline for instance will provide all the information required to select that item for use in sour semiee. Small scale tests such as those used in NACE TM0284, NACE TM0177 do not and can not take into account the effect of residual stress from manufacture and welding. In addition sample selection can be arbitrary, in some eases the wrong surfaces are tested. This paper traces the development of a large wale test method which has now been published by the UK Health and Safety Executive and is becoming included in a number of Oil company pipeline specifications.