Abstract: Artificial lift is a key technical link in oil production engineering. With several decades of development, several lift technologies have been formed, such as pumping unit, progressing cavity pump, electrical submersible pump and gas lift, which have satisfied the requirements for regular oil production. However, a series of problems still exist, such as low efficiency, high energy consumption and short pump detection period. Due to the more and more complex working conditions of artificial lift in oil wells, oil production cost is increasing constantly, thus promoting the development of artificial lift towards the directions of higher efficiency, energy conservation, environmental protection and reliability. Facing various difficulties in artificial lift for different oil wells, corresponding technical researches should be carried out, i.e., injection and production in the same well should be achieved to avoid invalid water cycle in high-water-cut oil wells; rodless lift technologies like electric submersible reciprocating plunger pump should be developed to solve eccentric wear and high energy consumption problems for well rods and tubes; new materials and technologies should be developed to solve difficulties in lifting special fluids; assorted techniques for optimization of lift technologies should be investigated to improve the monitoring and diagnose level of lift working conditions, thus enhancing the efficiency of artificial lift and cutting down oil production cost.