Abstract: Accurate and reliable prediction on pipeline burst pressure not only is conducive to the engineering design and integrity assessment of oil and gas pipeline systems, but also can improve the transmission efficiency of pipelines. In this paper, the hydrostatic pressure burst test was carried out on the small diameter and thin wall steel pipes which are commonly used in oil and gas pipelines. Then, several typical prediction formulas and methods for burst pressure were compared, and the prediction results were compared with the test results by means of deviation analysis. It is shown that the loading capacity of small diameter and thin wall steel pipe which is calculated by the burst pressure prediction formula based on Tresca yield criterion is closer to the actual result than that based on Von Mises yield criterion. And furthermore, it is more easily to interpret the hydrostatic burst process of small diameter and thin wall steel pipes based on the plastic failure of maximum shear stress in Tresca yield criterion. In view of the geometric characteristics of the steel pipe, ASME formula, Barlow OD formula, Barlow ID formula, Max shear stress formula and Turner formula are more suitable for calculating the burst pressure of small diameter and thin wall steel pipes.