Refining and chemical enterprises in urban areas and other densely-populated areas are facing great pressure of relocation or upgrade in China. To solve this problem, surveys were conducted on the oversea refinery industry to learn from their advanced security management experience. Then, the principles, performance indicators, and evaluation methods for safe, reliable, clean, and environment-friendly refining and chemical enterprises were defined. It is proposed that construction of safe, reliable, clean, and environment-friendly enterprises would be an effective way to settle this problem. Furthermore, two case studies were conducted, and the feasibility of this method was proved. It is suggested that departments concerned should adopt scientific methods to calculate the distance between enterprises and urban areas, and abide by it continually, so as to avoid the phenomenon that petrochemical enterprises were surrounded by urban areas. Moreover, different schemes should be carefully studied and scientifically evaluated before deciding whether the refining and chemical enterprises in densely-populated areas should be relocated or transformed in situ.