Petroleum refining unavoidably generates large volumes of oily wastewater. The environmentally acceptable disposal of oily wastewater is a current challenge to the petroleum industry. Nowadays, more attentions have been focused on the treatment techniques of oily wastewater. Oily wastewater contained highly concentrated and toxic organic compounds. Wet peroxide oxidation (WPO) and catalytic wet oxidation (CWO) were applied to eliminate pollutants to examine the feasibility of the WPO/CWO of oily wastewater. The results indicated that more than 80% chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal from oily wastewater was achieved with CWO. Homogenous catalyst, $NaHCO_3$ and $Na_2CO_3$ and NaOH showed effective removal for pollutants in oily wastewater. Greater than 90% COD removal was achieved with WPO. It was concluded that WPO was a far more effective process for oily wastewater.