In this study, ethanol tolerant bacteria have been isolated from refinery oily sludge contaminated soil by employing enrichment culture technique. All total 29 of the bacterial isolates have been obtained and screened for ethanol tolerating abilities at different concentrations of ethanol. The results showed that all the bacterial isolates could tolerate upto 5% v/v. A total of 13 bacterial isolates showed resistance to 10% v/v ethanol stress. On the other hand, 4 isolates can tolerate ethanol stress upto 15% v/v. The result also showed that only 1 bacterial isolate was able to withstand ethanol stress up to 30% v/v. The characterization of the bacterial isolate has been done which showed ethanol tolerance upto 30% v/v. Therefore, there are possibilities that by using the ethanol tolerant isolate, biofuel production can be achieved.