We present a method giving the field scattered by a plane surface with a cylindrical local perturbation illuminated by a plane wave. The theory is based on Maxwell's equations in covariant form written in a nonorthogonal coordinate system fitted to the surface profile. The covariant components of electric and magnetic vectors are solutions of a differential eigenvalue system. A Method of Moments (PPMoM) with Pulses for basis and weighting functions is applied for solving this system in the spectral domain. The scattered field is expanded as a linear combination of eigensolutions satisfying the outgoing wave condition. Their amplitudes are found by solving the boundary conditions. Above a given deformation, the Rayleigh integral is valid and becomes identified with one of covariant components of the scattered field. Applying the PPMo Method to this equality, we obtain the asymptotic field and the scattering pattern. The method is numerically investigated in the far-field zone, by means of convergence tests on the spectral amplitudes and on the power balance criterion. The theory is verified by comparison with results obtained by a rigorous method.