The oily sludge in the process of gathering and transporting accounts for about 60% of the new increment of oilfield hazardous waste, which is the focus of pollution control. Oily sludge has the characteristics of complex composition, high liquid content, stable emulsification and cementation. In recent years, researchers have studied a large number of "conditioning solid-liquid separation" reduction technology to reduce the environmental risk and disposal cost of oily sludge. However, it is still a difficult problem to optimize and match the methods and devices for the reduction and conditioning of oily sludge from different sources. In this paper, the chemical and physical conditioning methods, such as oxidation, demulsification, flocculation, drying/semi drying, ultrasonic and microwave, and the research progress of three solid-liquid separation devices, such as centrifuge, screw stacking machine and filter press, are summarized. Through the comparison and analysis of various chemical conditioning methods and devices, the mechanism, advantages and disadvantages, and applicable objects are mainly elaborated. The analysis showed that: among the chemical conditioning methods, demulsification oxidation and acid addition are more suitable for high polymer oil sludge; surfactant demulsification needs heating, which can be combined with ultrasonic method; the combination of organic and inorganic flocculants can improve the recovery rate of oil in tank bottom sludge; to a certain extent, the drying/semi drying method is restricted by the economic benefits. On the basis of previous studies, the design of numerical models such as biosurfactant, bioelectrochemical system, elliptical helix machine and centrifuge should be strengthened. Furthermore, the software is further optimized, and the coupling technology of multi-disciplinary reduction is studied.