To be able to give safe recommendations concerning the choice of suitable stainless steel grades for pipelines to be buried in various soil environments, a large research programme, including field exposures of test specimens buried in soil in Sweden and in France, has been performed. Resistance against external corrosion of austenitic, super austenitic, lean duplex, duplex and super duplex steel grades in soil has been investigated by laboratory tests and field exposures. The grades included have been screened according to their critical pitting-corrosion temperature and according to their time-to-re-passivation after the passive layer has been destroyed locally by scratching. The field exposures programme, being the core of the investigation, uses large specimens: 2 m pipes and plates, of different grades. The exposure has been performed to reveal effects of aeration cells, deposits or confined areas, welds and burial depth. Additionally, investigations of the tendency of stainless steel to corrode under the influence of alternating current (AC) have been performed, both in the laboratory and in the field. Recommendations for use of stainless steels under different soil conditions are given based on experimental results and on operating experiences of existing stainless steel pipelines in soil. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.