我国炼油工业经过50年的发展已具备一定基础，1999年底原油加工能力已达250Mt，居世界第四位。跨世纪进一步发展，首先要解决好国内外两种原油资源的统筹利用，特别是进口原油所涉及的加工、储备、运输及资源安全等一系列问题。同时要从降低原油成本、提高开工负荷率、降低能耗物耗、延长开工周期、降低加工费用、提高产品质量、满足环保要求等方面全面提高与进口石油产品的竞争能力，应对加入WTO的挑战。

China´s refining industry now has had fair strength after 50 years´ development. By the end of 1999, the annual capacity of crude oil processing had reached 250 million tons, which was ranked 4th in the world. At the turn of the century, China´s refining industry should solve a set of problems first, such as utilizing domestic and foreign crude oil resources as a whole, especially some problems in processing, storage, transportation and resource security of foreign crude oil. At the same time, in order to take up the challenges born of China´s entering WTO, it is necessary to enhance the overall competitive power against imported oil products in the respects of reducing the purchase cost of crude oil, raising facility utilization, cutting down the consumption of energy and material, prolonging production cycle, lowering production cost, improving the quality of products and meeting the requirements of environment protection.