To investigate applicability of the reference stress approach as simplified inelastic stress analysis to estimate local creep rupture, detailed finite element stress analyses of a T-piece pipe with different inner pressure and system loading levels are performed. The reference stresses are obtained from the finite element (FE) limit analysis based on elastic-perfectly-plastic materials, from which the local reference stress for creep rupture is determined from R5. The resulting inelastic stresses are compared with elastic stresses resulting from linear elastic FE calculations. Furthermore they are also compared with the stresses from full elastic-creep FE analyses. It shows that the stresses estimated from the reference stress approach compare well with those from full elastic-creep FE analysis, which are significantly lower than the elastic stress results. Considering time and efforts for full inelastic creep analysis of structures, the reference stress approach is shown to be a powerful tool for creep rupture estimates and also to reduce conservatism of elastic stress analysis significantly.