There are no relevant remediation standards to conduct the work for remediation of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soils in China. Thus, the researching methods for derivation and enactment of remediation criteria and standards for hydrocarbon contaminated soils in foreign countries are of significance for methodological references. In this work, the connotation of remediation criteria/standards for petroleum contaminated soils was briefly expounded from two aspects, namely, the meaning of the remediation criteria/standards and the classification method of petroleum hydrocarbons. Then, the tiered methods from foreign countries were introduced, followed by the summarization of application of risk assessment and their relevant models, the research about the analytical methods and the indicators/surrogates.At last, the general researching methods of remediation criteria/standards for petroleum contaminated soils were concisely concluded, and the further research in this direction was prospected.