Abstract: In order to study the impact of oil exploitation on soil nematode communities,six oil wells with different exploitation times located in the Shengli Oilfield were selected in this experiment.The results showed that 39 genera in 18 families of oil nematodes were identified,including 23 genera in Bacterivores (Ba),2 genera in Fungivores (Fu),9 genera in Herbivores (H) and 5 genera in Omnivores-predators (O).The largest proportion was Bacterivores,reaching 56.36%,followed by Herbivores,Fungivores and Omnivores-predators.Dominant groups were Panagrolaimus,Cephalobus and Eucephalobus.The oil exploitation duration significantly affected the total number of nematodes,the number of Herbivores and plant parasitic index (PPI) of the nematode community.13 genera of nematodes were correlated significantly with the duration of oil exploitation.The nematodes influenced by oil exploitation were mianly in the c-p 1 and c-p 2 groups.The oil exploitation duration was not significantly correlated with total petroleum hydrocarbon content.However,total petroleum hydrocarbon content did greatly impact the MI index of the nematodes community and the number of Rotylenchus.