Pre-qualification and area of examination
No prequalification (education, experience) is required.
The API SIRE – Source Inspector Rotating Equipment certification is open to applicants with any experience in the petroleum and petrochemical industries, as well as applicants wishing to gain industry experience.
The exam is 3.25 hours long and there are 110 questions, of which only 100 are scored.
The remaining 10 are pretest, which are not scored. Scored and non scored questions are shuffled and unmarked, so, you need to answer all questions.
All questions are multiple-choice and closed-book. Paper and reference materials are not allowed into the examinations.
Although exam scores are scaled in order to standardize the level of difficulty, you are required to answer roughly 70 scored questions correctly (minimum 400 on a scale of maximum 500).
API SIRE covers a wide range of inspection activities, codes, recommended practices and standards.
You are scored for your performance in the following areas during the examination.
Reference Study Materials
The following standards and recommended practices need to be studied for API SIFE examination:
API Documents
• Guide for Source Inspection and Quality Surveillance of Rotating Equipment, October 2018
• API RP 578, Material Verification Programs for New and Existing Assets, 4th Edition, February 2023
• API Standard 610, Centrifugal Pumps for Petroleum, Petrochemical and Natural Gas Industries, 12th edition, January 2021
• API Standard 614, Lubrication, Shaft-sealing and Oil-control Systems and Auxiliaries, 6th edition, February 2022
• API Standard 617, Axial and Centrifugal Compressors and Expander-compressors, 9th edition, April 2022
• API Standard 618, Reciprocating Compressors for Petroleum, Chemical, and Gas Industry Services, 6th Edition, May 2024
• API Standard 677, General-purpose, Extruder, and Epicyclic Gear Units for Petroleum, Chemical and Gas Industry Services, 4th Edition, September 2021
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, 2023 Edition
• Section II Materials, Part A, B, C, D
• Section V Nondestructive Examination
− Definitions in Subsection A, Article 1, Appendix I and Subsection B, Article 30, SE-1316 Articles 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 23 (section 797 only)
• Section VIII Rules for Construction of Pressure Vessels, Division
− AcceptanceCriteria
USC 56-57
− Appendix 7- Examination of Steel Casting
• Section IX Welding and Brazing Qualifications, Welding only
QW 100-190; QW 200-290; QW 300-380; QW 400-490; QW 500-540
American Society of Nondestructive Testing (ASNT)
• SNT-TC-1A Personnel Qualification and Certification in Nondestructive Testing, 2024
American Standard for Testing Materials (ASTM)
• ASTM A703 Standard Specifications for Steel Castings, General Requirements, for Pressure-Containing Parts, 2020
MSS – Manufacturer Standardization Society
• MSS-SP-55 Quality Standard for Steel Castings for Valves, Flanges, Fittings and Other Piping Components, 2011
SSPC Surface Preparation Guide, the following sections only:
SSPC‐SP 1 Solvent Cleaning, 2016
SSPC‐SP 3 Power Tool Cleaning, 2018
SSPC‐SP 5/NACE No. 1 White Metal Blast Cleaning, 2007
SSPC‐SP 6/NACE No. 3 Commercial Blast Cleaning, 2007
SSPC‐SP 7/NACE No. 4 Brush-Off Blast Cleaning, 2007
SSPC‐SP 10/NACE No. 2 Near-White Blast Cleaning, 2007
SSPC‐SP 11 Power Tool Cleaning to Bare Metal, 2020
As you can see, it touches a wide range of subjects that a rotating equipment inspector shall be familiar with; although not as an expert with an in-depth knowledge.
API provides a very useful guide for SIRE that covers all the possible activities for inspection management of rotating equipment packages.
You can download the ‘’Study Guide for Source Inspection and Quality Surveillance of Rotating Equipment’’ for free from below link:
Study Guide for the Source Inspection of Rotating Equipment
Our Online Training Course
Our API SIFE course (Online + Virtual Classroom including our mock exam questions are specifically aimed at covering the reference materials.