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NORSOK M630, M650

The NORSOK standards are developed by the Norwegian petroleum industry and are intended
to replace oil company specifications and serve as references for industry regulations.
Subject to development and publication of international standards, the relevant NORSOK
standard will be withdrawn.
The NORSOK standards are prepared and published with support by the Norwegian Oil and Gas
Association, The Federation of Norwegian Industries, Norwegian Ship owners’ Association and
The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway. NORSOK standards are administered and published by
Standards Norway. Two NORSOK standards that are often referenced are M650, Qualification of
Manufacturers of Special Materials and M630, Material Data Sheets and Element Data Sheets
for Piping.
M650 is a specification that establishes a very detailed process for obtaining approval as a
manufacturer. Precise processing parameters and extensive sampling and testing over the full
product size range to be approved is required. Material that is not processed in exact
accordance with the approval cannot be certified as compliant with M650. This often disqualifies
existing inventory since it may not have been produced on the same equipment, used different
hot reductions, etc. The formal approval is delegated to what are called Qualifying Companies.
Basically, these qualifying companies are intended to be the oil producers. There is no list of
those companies that are recognized as Qualifying Companies. Often, the testing and approval
process is further delegated to an independent third party laboratory. In theory, at least, approval
by one Qualifying Company should be accepted by other oil producers – but this is not
specifically mandated by M650. A manufacturer should have a formal document, called a
Qualification Test Record (QTR), from the Qualifying Company. The QTR identifies the product,
size range, etc. that is approved. The form for the QTR is included as Annex D in the
specification and an example for Alloy 2205 plate is shown in Figure 1.
M630 is a set of Material Data Sheets (MDS) that detail requirements (chemistry, mechanical
properties, etc.) that the material must meet to be qualified. The title describes its application to
piping but it covers all types of materials and product forms. M630 is 160 pages long. A page
covering the requirements for 2205 plate products is shown in Figure 2. A requirement of M630
is that the material must be produced by a manufacturer that is qualified to M650. However,
since the requirement to satisfy M650 is typically a company specific purchase order
requirement, and not a regulation, non-M650 material has been accepted once it has been
demonstrated it meets all other requirements of M630. Waiving the M650 requirement due to
lack of product availability is warranted under some circumstances, but this must be done by the
specifier.
Rolled Alloys works closely with M650 approved sources to maintain inventories that satisfy
many different end user requirements.