Abstract: As China is more and more dependent on petroleum import year by year, it is an urgent need to keep sufficientstrategic petroleum reserve. Based on the key technology of storage and operation of salt cavern strategic oil reserve, this paperanalyzes the design and parameter selection of cavern building of strategic oil reserve, selection of operation parameters andfactors affecting the stability of oil reserve in detail, based on the mechanical properties of salt rock and geological conditionsin China. The result shows that when the oil reserve operates safely, injecting-production rate should be under 4.5 m/s and theoperating pressure must be accord with the principle of the highest internal pressure of oil reserve, hot-pressing expansion offluid in cavern has a large influence on earlier stage operation of strategic oil reserve and after long term stable storage, whichcan cause the increase of internal pressure and crude oil leakage of reserve. And this issue must be paid special attention duringthe operation of oil storage. The research results can provide a theoretical basis and technical support to the engineering practiceof salt cavern strategic oil reserve in the future.