The oil concentrations in the soils around the oil wells of Jianghan, Jiangsu, Daqing and Shengli oilfields were determined firstly and then the influence of petroleum on the physico-chemical prosperities of soils were studied in this paper. The study showed the oil concentration in most of the soil samples from Shengli and Daqing oilfields exceeded the critical value and the petroleum contamination led to an increase in soil organic carbon but had no effect on soil pH, total N, hydrolysable N, available P and available K. The results indicated that addition of N, P was needed in bioremediation of petroleum-contaminated soil. The study also showed that the oily sludge was an important contamination source to the soil.