A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the effects of compost amendment on hydrocarbon degradation and microbial communities in petroleum contaminated soil. Petroleum hydrocarbons were analyzed using gravimetric method and GC-MS. Illumia Miseq technique was used to detect the microbial community structure of petroleum-polluted soil during the remediation. Results showed the removal efficiencies of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH), alkane, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were respectively (12.4±0.01)%, (10.2±0.01)%, and (9.38±0.02)% in the compost amendment soil (SC), compared to (3.21±0.02)%, (-3.00±0.01)%,and (-6.59±0.02)% in the control experiment (CK) after 42days of incubation. In response to compost amendment, the Shannon index, ACE index, and Chao1index increased from 4.30, 3489.3, 2691.0 to 5.80, 4684.7, and 3851.8, respectively. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria phyla decreased from 47.3% to 28.2%, and Bacteroidetes phyla increased from 0.78% to 16.2%. At the genus level, the relative abundance of the dominant genus in the petroleum contaminated soil including promicromonospora, Exiguobacterium, Nocardioides, Mycobacterium, and Citrobacter decreased significantly. Some new genus including Azomonas, Luteimonas, Pseudosphingo bacterium, and Parapedobacter appeared in the compost treated soil. The results indicated mature compost amendment effectively promoted petroleum hydrocarbon degradation in the soil, and soil microbial communities shifted significantly.