Composting is being widely employed in the treatment of petroleum waste. The purpose of this study was to find the optimum control parameters for petroleum waste in-vessel composting. Various physical and chemical parameters were monitored to evaluate their influence on the microbial communities present in composting. The CO2 evolution and the number of microorganisms were measured as the activity of composting. The results demonstrated that the optimum temperature, pH and moisture content were 56.5-59.5 degrees C, 7.0-8.5 and 55%-60%, respectively. Under the optimum conditions, the removal efficiency of petroleum hydrocarbon reached 83.29% after 30 days composting.