The aim of the paper is to estimate the possible methods for diagnostics of corrosion and stress corrosion (SC) cracking of main gas pipelines. The analysis results of corrosion and SC defects are presented in the form of dependence of the defect dimension on the defect position along a pipe and in its cross section. As a result the comparison of possibilities of direct and indirect methods for diagnostics of SC cracking of the main gas pipelines is carried out.