Abstract: Based on the analytical results of supply and demand for petroleum resources of China at current stage, some major issues to be focused on in setting up China's strategic petroleum reserve are put forward. The author considers that two jobs must be conducted to deal with the issues, that is, the qualitative and quantitative assessments on the risk of petroleum safety that China will face should be carried out; an analysis on the social/economic profits to be obtained from the strategic petroleum reserve should be made in order to establish relative models. In the article, some patterns in setting up China's strategic petroleum reserve are described, including reserve system pattern, capacity pattern, allocation pattern and construction/operation pattern.