China has built nine national oil reserves depots. However, compared with the developed countries in Europe and America, petroleum reserves and guaranteed supply capacity is still insufficient. With China’s crude oil external dependence approaching 70% by 2020, accelerating the construction of oil reserves storage depot is crucial to national energy security and economic development. The design and construction of oil reserves storage depot is heading towards the trend of large-scale development, increasing difficulties in operation and management and higher safety risks. From the aspects of planning, operation, management, safety and fire protection, this paper expounds the technical status and leading edge experience at home and abroad, such as the utilization of idle private oil storage resources, the improvement of tank control valve and design against leakage from tank, the installation of leak protection system under the bottom plate of new storage tank, and the application of tank automatic compressed foam extinguishing system technology. Finally, some pragmatic suggestions are put forward to accelerate and improve the development of oil reserve storage depot in China, which is of significance in guiding the upgrade of the intrinsic safety design and guarantee the capacity of oil reserves storage depots in China.