Abstract: Existing oil analysis methods and their problems were discussed. The advantage and disadvantage of two new national standard methods based on infrared absorption were also discussed. In order to improve the comparability of oil monitoring data for water and wastewater, the infrared spectrophotometry method should be promoted as soon as possible. For the existing methods, it had been suggested that tetrachloroethylene is one possible substitute of carbon tetrachloride which will be limited by international protocol at 2010.