Crude oil discovery has accelerated the human modernisation and growth. Despite playing a positive and relevant role in humankind, petroleum products’ associated risks and environmental impacts cannot be ignored. Environmental sustainability has become the most important international issue, with countries committing specific goals to tackle threats within their jurisdictions. Shortcomings in the traditional and existing methods have made way for new and intensive research in the field of remediation. Pollution due to petrol discharge and oil spillage is one area that demands immediate environmental sustainability concerns and needs better remediation methods. The idea of using particular microorganisms with enhanced efficiency for the treatment of petrol discharge has widened the scope of bioremediation compared to conventional techniques. However, various downsides are associated with physical and chemical methods for the remediation of polluted sites. Hence, bioremediation has been investigated as an alternative approach for treating pollution caused by petrol discharge or crude oil in soil and groundwater. Advancement in molecular biological techniques has oriented the driving force towards using genetically engineered microbes (GEMs) for bioremediation. Genetic engineering enhances the bioremediation capability of microorganisms in several ways, such as modulation of existing catabolic pathways, creation of new routes of metabolism, insertion/overexpression of catabolic genes, inhibition of toxic intermediate accumulation and intensifying the degradation potential of microbes.