The risk of oil spills in rivers has increased due to oil storage facilities along rivers, inland navigation, major oil transport pipelines that cross rivers. Inland oil spills are more frequent than ocean oil spills but are usually of smaller volumes. Oil spills in inland waterways can have enormous environmental and economical impacts because of their closeness to populated areas and economic centres. Previous review studies on oil spill modelling have concentrated on ocean oil spill modelling. In this paper all existing major river oil spill models are reviewed. The specific needs of the river oil spill models that are different from the ocean oil spill models are identified. The physico chemical oil spill processes which form the model are discussed. A comparison of the different models are presented. Simulations are presented to demostrate state-of-the-art in river oil spill models.