Abstract: As early as 1940s, the friction redusing problems in pipelining crude oil as Well as oil products had roused peoples' attention. It was, however, not until 1979 and 1983 that the friction reducer began to be industrially applied in crude oil and oil products pipelines re spectively. An introduction is given here to the industrial application of friction reducer in pipelining oil products abroad, the synthesis to make it and the evaluation of its properties, and the development of oil reducer at home. And it is pointed out, considering the reality of onr country, that it is unbenificial to increase the capacity of oil transportation only by relying on importing the expensive friction reducer from abroad. Therefore, it is an extremely urgent task now confronting us to organize some scientific research institutes concerned to oopcrate with the beter production units under China National Petrochemical Corporation for researching into and developing the best friction reducer of our own.